Noelle - A Christmas Movie Powerhouse with a Message to Heal Millions
By Michael Bresciani (11/30/07)
Movies today can end with nothing being resolved and some films even offer alternate endings in the event you didn't like the way it did end. The movie Noelle ends with something we can all live with and something millions can't live without.
Opening in theatres around the nation on December 7, 2007 Noëlle is a low budget picture with a big budget impact written by David Wall and produced by Lenny Manzo and David and Kerry Wall. It is an unrated 90 minute drama that has garnered glowing reviews from the prestigious family oriented Dove Foundation.
The film released by Los Angeles based Gener8Xion Entertainment, Inc., (Omega Code,) (One Night with The King,) (China Cry,) follows the lives of two Catholic priests who have both reached stagnant plateaus in their lives that they cannot accept and they want to move on. In order to move ahead each must face a different obstacle.
Father Keene (David Wall) is haunted by the choices he made in youth and is saddled with the business of closing a small faltering Parish church in a quaint New England fishing village on Old Cape Cod. His counterpart is Father Simeon Joyce (Sean Patrick Brennan) who is searching for a way to revitalize the church and keep it open.
Fr. Joyce loves both the church and the townspeople so when they won’t come to him he goes to them. He is often found fraternizing with the town’s people in the local pub where Celtic and American Folk music are featured.
The Cape Coders are a colorful melee of characters that from time to time are heard speaking the soft and melodious strains of the Portuguese language so prevalent in that part of New England. The Portuguese, who are noted for their belief in “fado” or fate, make a fitting backdrop for this film where fate changes for just about everyone of its leading characters.
Inadvertently each priest helps the other to find the answer they both desperately crave. When Father Keene suggests a Christmas play at the church and Father Joyce invites Father Keene to the town’s biggest annual Christmas gathering at the home of Widow Marjorie Worthington (Kerry Wall) their respective personal torments begin to unravel.
Father Keene is plagued by a recurring vision of an angelic child played by David Wall’s daughter (Brennan Wall) and with each appearance the mystery escalates. Why does this child haunt Father Keene and just what does she want from him? This is answered at the powerful conclusion of the film and is an ending that will never escape your memory.
David Wall displays an amazing versatility as an actor when in one moment he will make you laugh uproariously as he crashes a motor scooter into a snow bank while in the next he will have you glued to every word in an intense dialogue with others in the story. David’s lovely wife Kerry, who plays Marjorie Worthington, wields her thespianic craft with equal intensity and convincibility.
David Wall admitted that many people remind him of how much he looks like a young Robert Redford but was quick to say, “You have never seen Robert Redford fall on his butt in any movie he has ever made.” Wall may be the victim of Cape Cod’s blustering winter ice but he doesn’t fall at all in his performance as the emotionally troubled priest who Wall says is “struggling not only to discover who he is; but also; who he is not.”
Although the production has a clear pro-life message interwoven into it, David Wall said his original attempt was aimed at “dealing with hypocrisy” The secondary import of the message is one Wall welcomes and he is unafraid to make his pro-life position known.
The film is not in anyway limited in its appeal to just pro-lifers. Because upwards of forty million children have been aborted in the United States the numbers of people affected collaterally is much more. Forty million babies, mothers, fathers, friends and family have all had their lives changed in some way by a decision to abort. The film speaks to all of them. It offers a universal message across the board from the abortion advocate to the post abortion women who are so quickly forgotten. That message is the heart of the film.
The film is accessible to Christians, Catholics and the general public in any strata of society. It has a deeply human and universal appeal that starts at the heart but may end with a renewal of the mind and perhaps even the very fabric of society itself.
Noëlle has the ear markings and promise of a classic film not just for Christmas but for all time and for any time. Dove Foundation says the film can be seen by 12 years old and up so it could possibly be the best family movie for this Christmas season and for many more to come.
Rev Michael Bresciani
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