Those who thirst for compassionate views of Christianity will find succor in local filmmaker Patrick Coyle’s absorbing new film, Into Temptation, which David Doyle shot entirely and splendidly in Minneapolis. Law and Order’s Jeremy Sisto and Wicked Tony-winner Kristin Chenoweth captivate as a socially conscious priest and a suicidal sex worker. Numerous other terrific turns by local actors include two African-American goddesses of the Twin Cities stage, Greta Oglesby and Isabell Monk O’Connor. Brian Baumgartner (The Office), who devastated as a bi movie mogul in Hidden Theatre’s area premiere of The Dying Gaul a decade ago, delights as Sisto’s buddy priest. In his latest, Coyle—whose Detective Fiction played Sundance 2003—muses on how we stigmatize sex and poverty. Exquisite are Sisto’s scenes with John Skelly as a young man troubled by homosexual feelings. Coyle derails the fatuous notion to “let bygones be bygones,” current in both politics and countless personal relationships today. But as Chenoweth’s victimization shows us, cruelty unrepented can be catastrophic.
