Love it or hate it, and the opinions seem to be pretty evenly divided, this is a compelling film because of the performances of three fine actors--Kenneth Branagh, Madeline Stowe, and William Hurt. The story is incredibly far-fetched but, a la Six Feet Under, because it deals with emotions and fantasies we've all felt, it works in some sort of quirky way.

Madeline Stowe is absolutely radiant--confused, vulnerable, strong, passionate. William Hurt perfectly combines the ruthless Wall Street professional and the condescending tenderness of a man of his time. Branagh is a cypher whose screen charisma makes him riveting.

Some of the nitpicking in earlier reviews seems wrong to me. The Mass vestments are exactly right for the solemn high mass of that period, as is Branagh's demeanor. Extreme Unction can in fact be administered for a short period after death, though not, of course, on a corpse in a coffin. In fact, the only reason to open the coffin before burial is so that Eleanor can see who it is that's being buried.

This is a movie that seems to have been adapted from an Andrew Greeley semi erotic novel instead of having been written for the screen by Rick Ramage. As directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, "The Proposition" is a film that deserves to be forgotten, at best.

If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.

The premise of the film seems to be that privilege doesn't buy happiness, which is the theme of many a melodrama. We meet the happily married Barrets, a wealthy, but childless couple from Boston in the early part of the last century. Arthur is wealthy; he provides Eleanor, his wife, with all the things she desires, except the child, he is unable to give her.

Enter young Roger Martin. He is asked to be the surrogate person that will give Eleanor her child. Roger and Eleanor have to meet twice in order to get her in the family way, but alas, whatever comes so easy, ends up in tragedy, as dictated by the soap opera lexicon.

Never fear, as devout Catholics, the Barrets are introduced to the newly arrived Father McKinnon, a young, handsome priest. We find out this young prelate is in reality Arthur's nephew! It's surprising that at this point no amnesia is introduced to any one of the characters. Well, Eleanor and Father Michael find they have a lot in common including a passion that consume and will destroy them! Their love produce twins that are seen at the end of the film going with their great uncle to the altar as he is going to receive communion from the real father of the boys.

One wonders what is Kenneth Branagh doing in this thing? One of the best English actors of his generation hasn't had much luck with his American film ventures and one would like to suggest to him to be careful in future roles like this Father McKinnon.

This is a film that will be cherished by lovers of soap opera and hated by others that might stumble into this movie thinking it's better, based on the names of the people involved in it. Watch it at your own risk.

I was looking for the Australian western of the same name and the Sundance credits writer got it wrong and roped me into this 1930s Boston Catholic melodrama. I still want to see the western, but this was not a bad misdirection.

Whoever cast A History of Violence had to see this film as William Hurt plays the same character in both films - marvelously, I might add. He is a rich Catholic businessman here instead of a mobster, but the basics are the same. He wants to give his wife (Madeleine Stowe in a great performance) a child and Viagra was not yet invented, so he hires someone (Neil Patrick Harris) to do the job. His only mistake was picking a 24-year-old who couldn't just take the money and walk away. OK, so we have a moral question here, but we ignore that for the movies sake.

Into his parish comes a new priest (Kenneth Branagh) and he jumps the Rabbit-Proof Fence, uses The Magic Flute, and we have an Alien Love Triangle. Didn't Richard Chamberlain do that naughty priest bit in The Thorn Birds? There is a lot of Catholic malfeasance, guilt and remorse and penance and symbolism here, but don't let that turn you off as it doesn't interfere with the story. And, no children were hurt in the making of this film.

There are some fine performances and an interesting story. You should check it out.