Professor Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank) is some sort of professional miracle-debunker (ah, the things they provide government grant-money for these days) who is called to a small town in the Louisiana Bayou to investigate the claim that the water in the local river has mysteriously turned to blood. Once an ordained minister but now an atheistic skeptic - a condition brought on by the death of her young daughter - Winter sets out to find a rational, scientific explanation for the phenomenon, only to discover, when she arrives there, that the town is indeed suffering from what appears to be a Biblical Ten Plagues redux. Soon, frogs are falling from the sky, cattle are dying in the fields, food is becoming infested with maggots, boils are popping up on the citizenry, swarms of locusts are plaguing the town etc., etc., etc.
"The Reaping" is another in a long line of Bible-inspired thrillers that are long on silliness and short on thrills. With its largely incoherent, cobbled-together tale of prophecy fulfillment and ritualized child sacrifice, the movie manages to insult scientists, atheists, religious folk and rural Southerners - not to mention the intelligence of its audience - with just about equal fervor. Not to worry, though, the unbeliever - as is always the case in such films - has her religious faith miraculously restored to her in the end, although it comes with a mighty steep price as revealed in the story's tiresomely "ironic" coda.
All involved in this overwrought and undernourished production seem to be phoning in their work, from the performers to the writers to the director to the special effects technicians. As for Ms. Swank's appearance in this swill, all we can say is rarely has a two-time Oscar winner fallen this far.
"The Reaping" is another in a long line of Bible-inspired thrillers that are long on silliness and short on thrills. With its largely incoherent, cobbled-together tale of prophecy fulfillment and ritualized child sacrifice, the movie manages to insult scientists, atheists, religious folk and rural Southerners - not to mention the intelligence of its audience - with just about equal fervor. Not to worry, though, the unbeliever - as is always the case in such films - has her religious faith miraculously restored to her in the end, although it comes with a mighty steep price as revealed in the story's tiresomely "ironic" coda.
All involved in this overwrought and undernourished production seem to be phoning in their work, from the performers to the writers to the director to the special effects technicians. As for Ms. Swank's appearance in this swill, all we can say is rarely has a two-time Oscar winner fallen this far.