Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
Amy Berg's documentary is a harrowing and meticulously constructed exposé of Father Oliver O'Grady and the systemic Catholic Church corruption that enabled his decades of abuse. The narrative structure is genuinely compelling, weaving victim testimonies with the deeply unsettling direct interviews with O'Grady himself — a journalistic and editorial achievement that drives the plot category high. The cinematography is competent but functional documentary work, nothing visually distinctive. Novelty is moderate — while the subject matter is important and Berg's access to O'Grady is remarkable, the broader clergy abuse documentary form was becoming more established by 2006, and the film follows relatively conventional investigative doc conventions. The ending, like many such documentaries, leaves viewers with rightful outrage but limited resolution, which is emotionally honest but not cinematographically or narratively exceptional. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense but the interview subjects and O'Grady himself are assessed on their screen presence and the film's use of them.