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| Kimberly Cullum and Mimi Rogers in The Rapture |
Cast: Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny, Patrick Bauchau, Darwyn Carson, James Le Gros, Will Patton, Carole Davis, Sam Vlahos, Stéphanie Menuez, Marvin Elkins. Screenplay: Michael Tolkin. Cinematography: Bojan Bazelli. Production design: Robin Standifer. Film editing: Suzanne Fenn. Music: Thomas Newman.
European filmmakers are less skittish about dealing with religious belief than Americans are: Think of the three B's, Bergman, Buñuel, and Bresson, for example. But apart from biblical epics, which we don't see much of anymore, American movies usually avoid putting characters in situations that test their faith. Michael Tolkin's The Rapture is such an obvious exception to the rule that I think it has been a bit overpraised as a result. It succeeds as much as it does on the strength of Mimi Rogers's performance as Sharon, a woman whose life is empty: She works in a grindingly routine job as a telephone operator and escapes from it by going out at night with a friend, Vic (Patrick Bauchau), picking up other couples for sex. She begins a relationship with Randy (David Duchovny), the male half of one of the couples they meet, but remains as bored and depressed as ever. At work she overhears people talking about a religious group to which they belong, and how good it makes them feel, so she investigates and soon becomes a devout member of a sect that believes the Rapture is at hand, that the end of the world is nigh and the true believers will be transported directly to Heaven. She finds comfort in the belief, converts Randy to it, and they marry and have a child, only to face a real crisis of belief. Up to this point, The Rapture is a solid and mostly convincing portrayal of the way religious belief can sometimes become a last resort. Unfortunately, Tolkin chose to end the film with a low-rent Apocalypse that tests the movie's budget and the audience's credulity as much as it does Sharon's faith.
