Leap Of Faith

"Believe and you shall receive, doubt and you go without". This quasi-religious mantra of American consumer culture is explored here via the story of a psuedo-evangelical preacher/hustler Ionas Nightengale(Steve Martin) who arrives in a small Southern dustbowl town to peddle his snake oil and discovers a new meaning in his life. It's familiar hokum neatly packaged with a surprisingly (given that film is largely tosh) upmarket cast including Debra Winger as Martin's side-kick, Liam Neeson as the small town sheriff and a small early role for Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Martin indulges in his familiar silly walks and is like no kind of preacherman you'd ever believe in but his performance is energetic enough to keep you entertained although the manipulatively upbeat saved-by-Jesus ending wipes out much of what made the film watchable in the first place.

 

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