MOVIE REVIEW : GOOD INTENTIONS, POOR EXECUTION

“Emanon” (Beverly Center Cineplex) represents a sincere but hopelessly amateurish attempt to dramatize a spiritual experience. The more you struggle to say something nice about an enterprise of such noble sentiments, the more inescapably and truly terrible and foolish it seems. It’s unfortunately a movie about redemption that is itself without redemption beyond its good intentions.

Its curious title is simply “No Name” spelled backward. “No Name” is what a Christ-like Skid Row alcoholic (Stuart Paul, also the film’s writer-director) calls himself. His seeming gift for performing miracles catches the attention of a precocious, tow-headed boy (Jeremy Miller) on crutches who seems to spend his entire day riding around in a chauffeur-driven limousine while his mother (Cheryl Lynn, who’s beautiful but no actress) struggles to save her late husband’s garment-manufacturing business. (So help me, it’s true: She turns the business around with a line of clothing inspired by the ragged sackcloth that “No Name” wears!)

The film has a central and familiar notion: Were Christ to surface in today’s world, He would have a hard time being accepted as the Saviour. In an ecumenical spirit, “No Name” does not claim to be Jesus, and it’s made clear that he could just as easily be Mohammad. “No Name” preaches the need for religion to unite rather than divide mankind and that, with faith, the capacity for performing miracles resides in all of us.

“Emanon” (rated PG) may be wisely low-key and gentle as a sermon, but it is simply too inept in all aspects to be convincing except in its sincerity. There are some professional actors involved, but they’re done in by Paul’s lack of writing and directing abilities. Paul has burdened himself needlessly by setting his story in New York but filming it largely in Los Angeles, which means that he has created a hopelessly elaborate task of trying to match extensive Manhattan establishing shots with local settings. Why not simply have set the story here in the first place?

Although it’s obviously true that a maker of religious films hasn’t the resources of a Hollywood studio producer, there’s still no reason why such pictures can’t succeed on their own terms. For an example, one need look no further than Billy Graham’s World Wide Productions, which for years has been making effective, modestly budgeted films that quietly ask us to examine our lives.

‘EMANON’ A Paul Entertainment presentation. Executive producer Steven Paul. Producers Hank Paul and Dorothy Koster-Paul. Writer-director Stuart Paul. Camera John Lambert. Music Lennie Heihaus. Costumes Polly Hoyt. Art director Donna Stamps. 2nd unit director Patrick Wright. Film editor Richard Meyer. With Stuart Paul, Cheryl Lynn, Patrick Wright, Jeremy Miller, Tallie Cochrane, William P. Collard, Robert Hackman.

Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG.