MOVIE REVIEW : ‘The Rapture’: Hellbent on Facing the Hereafter

“The Rapture” is the damnedest thing, pun very much intended. A nervy, unsettling, edgy piece of work, it is that most audacious of cinematic ventures, a film of theological ideas, intent on looking into what we believe and why we believe it, determined, even eager, to explore the most basic issues of heaven, hell and the hereafter.

If this sounds even a bit on the tedious side, bite your tongue, because first-time director Michael Tolkin, who also wrote the screenplay, has been careful to present these heady concerns in dramatic and passionate terms. Improbably enough, he has blended the question of whether God or chaos rules our universe into the format of a sensual thriller.

According to at least one dictionary, the Rapture is defined as “the experience, anticipated by some fundamentalist Christians, of meeting Christ midway in the air upon his return to Earth.”

But when we first meet Sharon, the film’s protagonist, rapturous experiences of a very different kind have a hold on her mind. By day, Sharon (Mimi Rogers) works as an information operator in a bank of phone company employees who sit stolidly in Kafkaesque cubicles, saying “Please hold for the number” hour after stultifying hour.

At night, however, all wraps are off. Teaming up with the unctuous Vic (Patrick Bachau), Sharon turns into a hard-living swinger, cruising airport bars and swap clubs in an endless search for like-minded fun couples.

Though on one level these sexual encounters are merely the clever front end of a bait-and-switch operation, deftly hooking the viewer into Sharon’s psyche, Tolkin knows enough to treat them with great care.

The elliptical dialogue between the swappers is cool and knowing (Tolkin previously wrote the Hollywood novel, “The Player”) and the sexual interludes are as steamy as the law allows.

As he does with the film as a whole, Tolkin walks a fine line here, refusing to shortchange the lure of absolute sexual freedom while at the same time clearly indicating how limiting and frustrating defining yourself through promiscuity inevitably becomes.

And Sharon certainly feels frustrated, though she can’t put her finger on why or how. Someone who has never found her limits, she finds herself needing something more, though at first she can’t even imagine what that more might be.

In the company cafeteria, she overhears snatches of conversation about the Rapture, about a dream of an enormous luminous pearl, but no one seems to want to talk to her about it.

One day, a pair of fundamentalist evangelists come to her door, telling her with absolute and unnerving conviction, “You understand that these are the Last Days. You have to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. He is coming back.” Sharon laughs, but something sticks in her mind.

Obviously, Sharon will not be able to resist fundamentalism’s lure, but one of the strengths of “The Rapture” (selected theaters, rated R for strong sensuality and some language and violence) is that conversion does not come at all easily.

Sharon has long, questioning talks with co-workers and friends, including Randy (David Duchovny), one of her swapper pals, engaging in some surprisingly thoughtful dialogues as she tries to decide whether God is real or just a story we tell ourselves.

And even if Sharon’s conversion does seem preordained, Tolkin has been quite astute in how he presents it, coming up with situations that work dramatically as well as philosophically. And that conversion turns out to be the merest beginning of Sharon’s story.

What happens to her afterward, the fascinating and in many ways unprecedented lengths to which Tolkin is willing to take his theological inquiries, will certainly come as a provocative surprise.

For “The Rapture” to even begin to work, the actress who plays Sharon must be up to its demands, and Mimi Rogers, who has no lack of previous credits, so far outshines them here that the film seems like her debut.

This is a strong, fearless, completely confident performance, and one that makes the journey from sybarite to soul searcher totally believable. Also a treat to watch, though in a very different way, is James Le Gros as Tommy, the most menacing and unsettling of urban cowboys.

Finally, though, this is very much Michael Tolkin’s accomplishment. Working without a net with subject matter that couldn’t be more daunting, he has made a film that is not only compelling but also notable for its dispassion.

It is not a believer’s film, but neither does it scoff or mock those who do believe. Think about this, Tolkin seems to be saying, this stuff is really interesting. And, against all odds, so it turns out to be.

‘The Rapture’

Mimi Rogers: Sharon

David Duchovny: Randy

Patrick Bachau: Vic

Kimberly Cullum: Mary

Will Patton: Sheriff Foster

Released by Fine Line Features. Director-writer Michael Tolkin. Producers Nick Wechsler, Nancy Tenenbaum, Karen Koch. Executive producer Laurie Parker. Cinematographer Bojan Bazelli. Editor Suzanne Fenn. Music Thomas Newman. Production design Robin Stendefer. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (strong sensuality and some language and violence).