Farmiga says the film didn’t have to be set in a church. What was important, she says, was that Corinne experience a crisis of faith. Having led an emotionally and intellectually sheltered life, Corinne eventually has a personal epiphany, and it’s not necessarily her baptism.

“She is a seeker. She’s got to find herself,” Farmiga says of the film’s central turn. “She’s not trying to rid herself of faith. She’s trying to rid herself of an impoverished faith ― an impoverished faith in God, an impoverished faith in marriage.”

Even though the small church that is central to Corinne’s life is patriarchal and doesn’t necessarily fulfill her spiritually, Farmiga is careful not to judge its members ― and, by extension, other similar believers. “Some of these people believe they have the answers, and they do,” Farmiga says. “And I hope audiences will be refreshed to see Christians depicted in a fully developed, sexualized way ― not just with Sunday school values.”

Some of those values ― including a very rigid reading of the Bible ― shape Chapman’s “The Ledge,” which is outwardly a ticking-clock thriller about a man poised to jump to his death and inwardly a debate about how faith and forgiveness can shape personal relationships.

Patrick Wilson plays Joe, the rigid, scripture-quoting husband of Shauna (Liv Tyler), whose affair with a hotel manager named Gavin (Charlie Hunnam) leads to a potentially deadly showdown. The film suggests that even though Gavin is the obvious spiritual apostate, his convictions and behavior might actually be more selfless.

The price of faith in Ratliff’s “Salvation Boulevard” can be high, even in the film’s comic setting. Brosnan plays televangelist Dan Day, and among his followers are Carl and Gwen Vanderveer (Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly), whose devotion to their pastor (and each other) is tested after a gun accident. The film is very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Larry Beinhart.

Ratliff says he grew up in an Amarillo, Texas, evangelical movement, but left the church as a teenager, and considers religion “basically superstitious.” Religious convictions, particularly in a mega-church led by a charismatic preacher, are a perfect milieu for satire, he thinks. “I felt I had to explore it ― there’s some great comedy there, there’s some great drama there,” Ratliff says. “It’s really using religion for a character story.”

He says that because “so much of all religion is about giving yourself over,” he could use “Salvation Boulevard” as a vehicle to explore the collision between skepticism and devotion. “The Dan Days of the world really have the ace up their sleeves when they say, ‘Believe and be satisfied.’” Even if Carl’s faith begins to waver, he ends up being more of a spiritual rock ― and Christ-like ― than his minister. Considine’s “Tyrannosaur” is unafraid to show that although religion may serve as a lifeline to some, it can’t always save people in a difficult marriage or with other troubles, and may in fact distract the afflicted from more pragmatic solutions.

“I wasn’t trying to make a statement,” Considine says. “But I do think too many people are worried about an existential thought instead of the here and now. They’re thinking ‘What do I do to get into heaven?’ instead of asking, ‘What can I do to make my life better with my fellow man?’”

Considine said his skepticism for religion grew out of watching people exploit his mother’s deep religious faith as she lay dying. “The idea that we’re all worried about an existential eye watching our every move is a real problem,” he says. “It makes us think about things that aren’t important.”

By John Horn

(Los Angeles Times)

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)