Last week we saw "The Power of Forgiveness" at the Gene Siskel Film Center, located in downtown Chicago. The Siskel Center is associated with the School of the Art Institute named after the popular movie critic of Siskel and Ebert fame who died of cancer some years back. The Center shows tons of arty movies in fabulously comfortable theatres. The director of this film, Martin Doblmeir, directed one of our favorite docs of all time, "Bonhoeffer," an account of this Lutheran ministers complex coming to terms with what it means to live in Germany during the Nazi reign.
In The Power of Forgiveness, Doblmeir addresses the concept of forgiveness, in part by visiting several locales / events that seem to many to defy forgiveness -- 9/11 families, folks in Northern Ireland who have had family members killed by the British army, an Amish community in which schoolchildren were shot, Holocaust survivors, and a number of other. Though the film raises some interesting issues, it is sometimes facile in its conclusions and has some weird production values which include an unfortunate reenactment scene reminiscent of a show one might see on the Discovery Channel. If Gene were still around, we think he would say thumbs down on this one -- but check out Bonhoeffer (2003) which is on netflix if you are a subscriber ("two thumbs up, way up" - Kate and Susan)
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