Review of The Rapture (1991) by Rainer K — 29 Jul 2013

Edgar, Edgar,.. you're so right. As you pointed out in the comment section of your review - we'll probably have highly intense arguments about this.

A film like this, actually anything that so intensely discusses spirituality, religion and Christianity is a very difficile topic (in this group).

I don't really want to engage into a battle with anyone of you at the moment, so I'll try to stick more to the aesthetics and overall style of the film for now.

The whole film has a rather distinctive 90s look and charm (or better non-charm). I was reminded of popular supernatural 90s TV shows that looked quite similar to this (although a lot cheaper), only that the special effects work in The Rapture was much better.

The presence of David Duchovny even enhanced this feeling (Ironically he wasn't so strongly associated with this kind of media output back then. For today's viewer it's pretty amusing to see Duchovny in such a film - kind of a confirmation).

The Rapture begins like an erothic thriller, actually with a swinger party. It's weird, funny and BOOBS!

Then, out of the blue, our main character Sharon (played by Mimi Rogers, a practicing Scientologist, lol) becomes superreligious and turns her life around. I didn't understand her motivation or the reason for this radical change (maybe I missed a scene but was there some moment of epiphany or did she just wanted to see the pearl too so badly, that she tried to force her salvation.

Well, she becomes a devoted Christian and acts a bit like she's member of a sect/cult (The position of writer/director Tolkin in all this is another mystery for me. Does he want to ridicule faith or is he himself a believer in God?). She converts her boyfriend Randy (Duchovny) to Christianity and they live a happy life with their daughter for the next six years.

SPOILER:

Randy gets killed though, and that's the moment when it gets really weird but also a bit more interesting.

Their daughter, overreacts in her wish to see her daddy again and wants to die (because, well, then she'll see him again, obviously). So her mum takes her on a camping trip to the desert where they wait for god to appear and ascent into heaven. Surprise, surprise, this doesn't work out, so mother Sharon shoots her daughter but then realizes she can't commit suicide because she won't be allowed in heaven (and I thought murder is also a bad thing...).

Here, Tolkin should have stopped imo. This would have made a quite fitting end. Sharon killing her daughter and realizing that nothing changed beside the fact that she's a murderer now. But Tolkin wasn't finished yet. He wanted to leave the stage with a bang and thus the film ends with Judgment Day - and Sharon, who can't accept the ongoings of the last few days and lost her belief in God, must stay in purgatory forever.

I'm not sure, if I got this all right, I'm not that good with biblical stories either so forgive me if I used some wrong notations. The Rapture seemed a bit ill-conceived. I'm still not sure what Tolkin tries to tell us with his film or even what his position is. It's a weird and sometimes unpleasant watch, über-spiritual, pretentious and not exactly mindblowing visually.

A cheesy, overly dark 90s melodrama, that doesn't really stand out in any category (beside the fact that it's excellent material to provoke a huge fight between Christians and Atheists or people of other religion). I just can't help but getting cynical discussing this.