Father Adam has got problems. He's begun working at his new parish in a sleepy Polish village, as well as being one of the leaders and organisers of a local home for unruly teenage boys, when temptation is laid in his path. Not only do some of the local married women want to 'receive him' (if you catch my drift), but the local home seems to be filled solely with the kind of young men that could easily make a career from modelling, and one of them in particular - Lukasz (Mateusz Kosciukiewicz), a handsome pyromaniac - is bringing forth a yearning inside of him.
Forbidden fruit times three, as Father Adam is a man of the church, plus Lukasz much, much younger, PLUS there's the fact that homosexuality is generally regarded as a 'sin' by the Church. The locals certainly don't seem like the forward-thinking sort - a teenager with down syndrome is regularly bullied, and a girl suffering an epileptic fit is stared upon like she's been possessed by the devil - so can Adam keep these feelings locked up inside?
Not so much a look at the Polish stance on homosexuality; in fact, Poland is one of the most progressive nations in that regard, but it is a look at the potentially hot topic issue of gay priests. However, instead of making lascivious and uncomfortable, In The Name Of does a good job of grounding what is essentially two people who want to bone each other. Unfortunately, that's ALL that In The Name Of manages to do, with 100-odd minutes of lust-filled glance-y foreplay and very little else.
Wonderfully shot, showing the naturally beautiful side of Poland rarely seen, with fantastic performances from Kosciekiewicz and Andrezj Chyra as Adam. It's just a shame that the film doesn't bother to delve much deeper into it's obviously interesting subject matter, relying too much on prolonged looks of longing that we're supposed to think are filled with subtext, but they aren't filled.
They're just saying one thing over and over again: Let's get it on.
