Don't you just love hate? Isn't it a wonderful thing? This movie was perhaps not the best movie for me to watch while I was in the mood I'm in today. Here's the thing. I was deeply religious for over eight years, and my religion affected every aspect of my life. I truly believed people were going to burn and suffer in hell eternally if they didn't believe what I believed. So now I have a serious aversion to the kind of religion that piles such shame and guilt and oppression upon its members, but I also understand the impulses of the deeply religious, and I want filmmakers to be honest in their portrayals of religious people. Too often religion is portrayed in a one-note way with static characters, either from the non-religious side portraying the religious people as unintelligent freaks or the religious side portraying
all Christians as wonderful and all non-religious as evil sinners, and neither of those portrayals is helpful. In this movie, the perpetrators of the titular hate crime are deeply religious and they truly and honestly believe they're doing God's work, and while the movie doesn't excuse their actions it DOES show a period before the attack occurs when the
perpetrators are going door-to-door handing out religious tracts, honestly trying to save people. Yes, they are ignorant and afraid of what they don't understand, but the movie portrays them as people in a way a lot of movies don't, and that gives the movie a depth I appreciate.

And here's another thing... even though the religious people are bigoted, saying to a gay man “you know you're going to hell right? Jesus didn't die for your sins if you do perverted shit. Just... find Jesus ok?” isn't a good thing to say, it is EQUALLY bad for your family to retaliate by talking to the religious kid and telling him HE'S going to hell and he's a “stupid weak choir boy.” I wanted to strangle everyone in this movie, nobody seems to know how to go to their separate corners and calm down anymore, everyone has to attack and pour fuel on the fire. I knew where it was going to lead and I was pissed. Therefore it's safe to say the movie got to me. One sequence in particular is quite effective. The gay men go to a church where on Sunday morning the pastor preaches on love and God's love, and this scene is contrasted with the pastor at the fire-and-brimstone church the perpetrators go to preaching about God's wrath and how he will punish sinners. I also appreciate how the two gay men in a relationship aren't portrayed in complete bliss with no problems but instead have arguments and problems in the midst of their bliss.

So the acting is far better than I'd expect, and the script isn't one-note, and the characters are complex in a way I appreciate. And then the movie takes a turn, and suddenly I don't like the complexity anymore. Remember when I said it's not a good idea to harass people who harass you? Well, after the “hate crime” happens, the police start to believe the bad guys and suspect the good guys, and the good guys become less good (they're complex, remember?) and they start saying things like “you can't trust the law, all you can trust is yourself and take the law into your own hands to protect yourself,” and the urge to punch the screen overtakes me. Marriages become even more strained, the “good Christians” do a pretty damn good job of setting things up so that even I have to admit that there's more than enough probable cause to look at someone other than the actual perpetrator, and after awhile, “revenge” becomes the name of the game.

And it's not a pretty game. It never is. And the movie sets its characters up and then watches them fall in an unsettling and disturbing way. And like I said, I don't like it. I don't like hearing cops express distaste at “homos” because I don't want things to be that way (and it's not one of those “over-the-top” homophobic rants, either, he uses the term “homo” in an offhand way that's only mildly bigoted enough to ring true and be upsetting, plus like I said, the “good guys” have done a great job at this point of making themselves the most likely suspects in the world since they're so caught up in their anger they stop caring after awhile), and I hate it. I want the bad guys to wear black suits and the good guys to wear white (even after labor day) and everything to be clear, and it's not. The movie does veer into cliché territory a few times (the homophobe is secretly gay! Who would have guessed?) but the overall impression is one of reality that's a little too real, hits a little too close to home, and makes me despair for the hope of society in the tradition of great movies like “Crash” and “In the Bedroom.” Sometimes homophobic people really ARE gay, sometimes Christians are assholes but still not murderers, sometimes people can mean to do right be do something terribly wrong instead, life is not fair and sometimes revenge can seem like the only way to get justice. And if you want to watch it, sit back and enjoy the festivities.

The feel good movie of the year it ain't, but this is a richly complex portrait of what flawed humans do in reaction to tragic events.

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