Is this a giallo? A neo-noir? A detective story? Let's not play with labels. Let's just see it for what it is — a whodunit where priests and nuns are the victims of a serial killer who leaves a black rosary on their dead bodies.

Directed by Fred Walton (When a Stranger Calls) and adapted by Elmore Leonard, this is a dark, rough take on William X. Kienzie's novel (Kienzie left the Catholc priesthood in 1974 after 20 years due to the Church's refusal to remarry divorced people). This may have been the only movie concerning the detective skills of Father Robert Koesler (Donald Sutherland),but the character appeared in twenty three more novels from Kienzie.

The character is a progressive priest — even falling for a reporter, Pat Lennon (Belinda Bauer, RoboCop 2, Flashdance). He serves with Father Ted Nabors (Charles Durning, Tootsie),who is the exact opposite — a racist throwback to pre-Vatican 2 who follows the Church to the letter of the law.

The central dilemma of the film? The killer confesses to Koesler, who can't do anything about it, thanks to the Church's Seal of Confession. But what if other lives — maybe even his own — are in danger?

The film was shot on location at Detroit's Holy Redeemer Parish, and if you look hard enough, you'll see an uncredited Jack White — years before The White Stripes — as an altar boy. That feels like it should be an urban legend, but it is true.

The film has what some describe as a leaden pace. There are some great moments in it, such as when Koesler hears the killer in a cemetery and the ending, where the real killer is revealed. I'm always debating with myself whether or not to spoil the ending. It's a thirty year old movie, but I feel weird doing so here. Must be the Catholic in me.

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While the filmmakers of this murder mystery try their best to adapt William Kienzle's novel of the same name, the effort is sadly in vain for the majority.

Donald Sutherland does turn in a solid performance as protagonist Catholic priest Father Robert Koessler, the confessor of the film's murderer who is burdened by his oath of the confessional and cannot reveal the penitent's name. Sutherland portrays vulnerability in his trademark low-key body language and subtle facial expressions. However the filmmakers make an error by trying to establish a relationship between Sutherland and actress Belinda Bauer's reporter Pat (as the characters have no interaction in the novel); the exchanges between the actors are too awkward to take seriously.

Charles Durning also delivers some solid scenes as Father Ted Nabors, a fellow priest in Koessler's Catholic order and one of the potential victims of the killer. Durning portrays the priest as brash while the novel has the character as more worried man once the police and Father Koessler warn him of the possible danger of being slain. This difference is only minor and does not do real harm to the character.

The film follows the novel's narrative quite simply with a maniacal killer on the loose slaughtering priests and nuns of the Catholic faith. However the movie tones down the book's violence (a good effect for certain murders described in the novel) and eliminates some key deaths and also takes away key characters like the newspaper editor and lead reporter from the novel. Also missing from the majority of the film's story is Lieutenant Koczneski (Josef Sommer),who plays a key role in working with Sutherland's character in the novel and has less than two to three scenes in the film.

Give this movie a view if you choose, but the book is better.

Donald Sutherland plays Father Robert Koesler, a priest in Detroit who hears the confession of a murderer who is going around offing various priests and nuns. After doing some amateur sleuthing, Koesler figures out who the killer is. But he's bound by church law to say nothing. His superiors - among them, the hard nosed, conservative Ted Nabors (Charles Durning) - believe that nothing can violate the sanctity of the confessional. So, as you can guess, Koesler is a very troubled man. Koznicki (Josef Sommer),the detective on the case, is not as concerned with the rules of the Catholic church, aiming to catch himself a killer.

This sure sounds like a neat premise for a thriller, but on the whole the story isn't told in a particularly interesting way. The subplot of a potential romance, between Koesler and Pat Lennon (a reasonably appealing Belinda Bauer),really doesn't add anything to the material. Fred Walton ("When a Stranger Calls" '79, "April Fool's Day" '86) directs with competence and gives the proceedings a very somber quality. On location shooting ("The Rosary Murders" was actually filmed in Detroit) helps a bit, although the story doesn't exactly hold any surprises. (The killer turns out to be a truly disgusting piece of work.) That's too bad, considering that the two credited screenwriters are director Walton and the great author Elmore Leonard. There is a moment around the one hour mark that struck this viewer as simply too hard to swallow.

There are some solid actors and familiar faces among the cast: Anita Barone, Rex Everhart, Stefan Gierasch, Tom Mardirosian, Mark Margolis, James Murtaugh, Lupe Ontiveros, Addison Powell. But the movie is anchored the most by Sutherland, who plays Koesler as an easygoing, likable chap with a fairly progressive and compassionate attitude.

He and Durning manage to make this worth seeing.

Six out of 10.