Godspeed (2009) - 1.5/4

Godspeed, like a faith healer, asks for your faith then deceives you. Like the faith healer that is its main character, Godspeed is not so much voluntarily deceptive as having also deceived itself. Saitzyk directs the film as if he thinks he has something deep instead of a melodramatic thriller and the result is neither deep nor particularly thrilling.

Godspeed gets off to a good start with an Alaskan faith healer, Charlie Shepard (Joseph McKelheer), drinking, arguing with his wife, then going to a prostitute. His wife and son are murdered while he's out and it goes down hill from there. A faith healer's family is murdered: I wonder why? I'm sure a few people have pondered murdering Peter Popoff's family. The investigation, however, makes no leads, Shepard has become increasingly bitter and moves into the woods with a small camping trailer. Suddenly a young woman (Courtney Halverson) takes an interest in him and wants him to come to her home to heal her father. But, oh dear, her brother Luke (Cory Knauf) is one of the murderers of Shepard's family (we know, Shepard doesn't) and he's a looney preacher too.

It would help if Godspeed knew what it wanted to be. At times it wants to be a thriller, promising intense set pieces that ultimately fall flat. It exposes its mysteries too early and tacks on dramatic tension that quickly burns up. At times it wants to be a drama, and this is where Godspeed has the most success. Particularly when dealing with the aftermath of the murders and the life Shepard now lives, it shows him as an interesting person attempting to reevaluate his life and the ideals to which he has devoted himself. Once the girl shows up, melodrama and the promise of thrills disturbs the waters of real, character-based drama.

At yet other times Godspeed wants to be a James Randi lecture, showing us how awful is and what the repercussions can be of this faith healing nonsense and how a charismatic zealot can do great harm. The film seems convinced it has real insight on this point. Every character in Godspeed gets to make a speech. Even the sheriff's deputy. In fact, the deputy (reliable Ed Lauter) gets the best speech, an odd but effective story about a raven and a wolf. Most of the speeches are entirely in the screenwriter's voice and interrupt the flow of the narrative with contrived moments. Some blame, too, rests with the actors. Knauf in particular isn't up to the insanity of the incestuous zealot, Luke. A young Dennis Hopper in the role might have partially salvaged this film.

Rather than attempting to place the film in the mould of an 'intense thriller,' Godspeed would have profited from a more brooding and mounting intensity that balances the drama and threat of danger. As it stands, Godspeed frequently shifts gears suddenly and jarringly, making an uneven and disappointing experience. Compare Godspeed to any Claude Chabrol thriller. Chabrol begins with his unsettling characters and tantalizes with the possibility of flaring drama, of intense thrills, but holds out as long as possible; the flares and thrills are going on within the characters. If Godspeed's characters had any real interiority, this might be possible, but they don't. These people exist on the surface, in speeches and paraphernalia.