From NetFlix:

Director Antonia Bird’s film centers on Father Greg Pilkington (Linus Roache), a devout Catholic priest who struggles with a love for his church and congregation — and his secret life as a homosexual with a gay lover (Robert Carlyle). After hearing the confession of a young girl in his parish, who tells him her father is sexually abusing her, the priest is torn between the laws of the church and his need to choose one life over the other.

When this film appeared in 1994 the reviews were a mixture of praise and condemnation. Here the thesis is that the Catholic church is out-of-date and needs to change. No matter your opinion in this case, from an artistic standpoint many viewers, myself included, found the film often preachy, overly melodramatic, and driven by a prejudiced agenda. Still, the film held my attention throughout.

Three separate issues run through the film: Father Matthew Thomas (Tom Wilkinson) is living with the housekeeper, Father Greg Pilkington (Linus Roache) is gay, and a parishoner is sexually abusing his young daughter. With this last item the problem is that due to the “seal of confession” Father Greg feels he cannot tell anyone.

Some sex scenes between Father Greg and his male lover Graham (Robert Carlyle) are explicit.

In watching an old film it can be fun seeing actors that you know from films and TV closer to the present:

• Linus Roache played Michael Cutter in both “Law and Order” and “Law and Order SVU”.
• Tom Wilkinson has a huge acting resume. You may recall him as Graham Dashwood in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
• Robert Carlyle also has a long resume. You may remember his as Gaz in the 1997 film “The Full Monty”.

My strongest reaction to this film was: “Here we are 19 years after the film was made and there have been no changes in the Catholic church”. Surprise!