This long story of the corruption of a Catholic priest has little impact and not much drama, underlined by weaknesses in its key performances. Christopher Reeve was much too light an actor at this stage of his career for the central role and Genevieve Bujold, too mature for the role of the postulant nun with whom he falls in love, plays in entirely the wrong key. 'I only have an hour,' she tells him at their first bedding, making it sound like a line from a Carry On film. Not that she's the only temptation to which Reeve succumbs. He wheels and deals on the black market in wartime Rome to help Vatican finances and becomes enmeshed in Swiss bank accounts and reliant on civilian friends who will ultimately prove fickle. Crime does ultimately pay, however, which is more than you can say for director Frank perry's approach to the drama here, bogging it down with lengthy, slow-paced dialogue scenes. The colour photography by Billy Williams is sumptuous stuff - as expert at picking out the colours in religious robes as the glints of an autumn hillside.


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