If we should see this movie as an original story, with a well structured plot, having the climax at the beginning and the explanation through flashbacks we could say it's a good movie. If we had to judge it according to its ambitious aim to confront opposite philosophies of life, well, unfortunately, it leaves much to be desired. The contrast is between too stereotyped characters, the opposite visions of life get too clichè and unexplored. The fundamentalist Christian is pathetic and not credible at all, at least his "religious" convictions are just an expression of an insane mind, and as such cannot represent a real Christian conception of life. The atheist vision of life is rendered more credibly, simply because transmitted by a sane mind as opposed to the former insane, but too clichè, anyway, and too extremist, so what could have been an interesting and thoughtprovoking confrontation is reduced to a stereotyped juxtaposition of extremist, and as such non-constructing ideas, and to a sterile conflict. Other interesting issues, such as that of trust and sincerity inside marriage, could have also been more explored, and the character of the policeman remains underdeveloped. The cast is good but not convincing, probably because entrapped in their roles deprived of real human depth, and not supported by a strong script, which diminishes the level of the final product. On the whole, the picture sounds boring for the first three quarters, a little suspenseful in the last one, but the thoughtprovoking aim is totally unsatisfied until this last part, where, to tell the truth, the picture regains some credibility. Without spoiling anything, I just underline that the picture has the merit to avoid what could have been an easy finale, and proves daring in the very end: not enough, however, to save it from an overall sense of unaccomplished aim.
