‘Reproach‘, a film close to an action film (thing that makes it quite entertaining) but one that also has a little tendency of becoming a religious cult film too, however with a theme whose truth we would not dare to contest… so beware atheists out there! And we’re not making fun!
What one can say about Daniel Hale’s ‘Reproach’ is that the theme is an endangered one and the idea is definitely what raises the film’s value. While spiritual and religious themes – especially God related ones – are not only rare nowadays but also so heavily altered because of marketing reasons and their ‘raw’ approach, this film is quite courageous and sends us back to the old values, the ethical and religious ones, to be more specific. What it does is to bring forward the idea according to which God is so misunderstood nowadays.
Objectively speaking the film is quite right even though some people find it hard to connect or to relate to God. This is most probably because faith nowadays is authenticated by facts and certain events, and to push the idea even further by written and signed contracts is not an easy thing to do. There is no contract you can close with God outside faith which is – to put it like this – the most sterling signature a man can have, and at the same time one that cannot be forged. This is the main idea ‘Reproach’ brings forward: you cannot see, touch or hear God but faith is what will connect you with Him. So in the end it is not about the greater good of God but the greater good of man. Faith is what generates love and in the face of love and tolerance the reproach is only coming back to the reproacher, which by the way anything he would have to reproach would be to himself, the non-believer. Unexpectedly, he only realizes this when he is proven that faith is not a forgery. This was another good thing about the film.
The acting could have been a little bit better and the cinematography a little steadier here and there. However that does not mean the actors or the cinematography were bad (faces were well chosen and technically the film was good and coherent). What we also liked was the fact that Daniel Hale accurately and successfully portrayed various kinds of church-people characters.
There are so many ideas and aspects that can be debated about Daniel Hale’s short because of its philosophical side, but we’ll try not to spoil everything! It is a film for those seeking deep spiritual meanings, not for everyone. Nonetheless it makes you curious… and that says it all.
We really did appreciate this film not only for the ideas and the array of meanings, but also for the director’s attempt to ‘break the boundaries’. There are so many ideas out there that could have been great but never saw the light… ‘Reproach’ is amongst the ones which did.
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