This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
The film is set in the time of Cardinal Law, who during his time in Boston apparently turned a blind eye to all the cases of child abuse and sexual abuse of young boys and continued to support the priests. We see a few very uncomfortable scenes where priests are seen molesting young boys. Primarily amongst these were Father John Geoghan, whose arrest in many years later starts to uncover all these hidden truth. The victims start to come forward, and a lawyer Mitchell Garabedian sues Cardinal Law & the diocese for hiding the crimes from the authorities. Cardinal Law arrogantly defends his behavior, and refuses to resign. The film follows through how the lawyer gets all victims together to make a string case in the court and how law and media come together to expose one of the biggest scandals and cover up by the church.
This film is not an easy watch at all. There is a scene where one of the victims is taunted by a couple of insensitive men at a local deli. When he graphically describes to them how he was abused, I was almost in tears. Any amount of graphic details cant match that short scene that make you truly feel what those young boys must have gone through. Its hard to not become angry at the double standards of the church and see this film objectively. It took many brave souls to take on the Catholic Church on such a horrifying subject as the pedophilia that occurred by the very same Priests to which we entrusted our children. The cast of the film is just perfect. Everyone does a standout job and the film brilliantly shows the impact on the lives of those abused and focuses on the church, in not the best of terms.
Its hard to rate movies like these. Something with a very strong message, very gripping and you are curious to know how the church is going to react to the whole scandal. Besides the bad title of the film, I would generally rate this movie quite well but still a very difficult to watch film dealing with a very controversial and sensitive subject. (7.5/10)
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