MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘Leap of Faith’ Raises the Old Revival Tent

It’s hard to tell a story about salvation if you don’t believe in sin, but “Leap of Faith” (citywide) tries its best. A mild and gentle film about a subject that wants edgier treatment, it turns the other cheek so often its sweetness dilutes the message it would like to convey.

Though it has a first-rate cast (Steve Martin, Debra Winger, Lolita Davidovich, Liam Neeson and Lukas Haas) and a graceful director in Richard Pearce, the most memorable thing about “Leap of Faith” turns out to be its setting, the world of old-fashioned, Lord-have-mercy revival meetings.

Preachers who condemn wickedness from the pulpit but practice it behind closed doors are a perennial lure for movies, and “Leap’s” Rev. Jonas Nightengale (Martin) will look awfully familiar to those who’ve seen Burt Lancaster’s Oscar-winning work as the whirlwind Elmer Gantry.

A man with supreme faith in himself, with a parable for every doubter and a move for every cop, Nightengale never met the situation he couldn’t verbally master. When his “Miracles and Wonders” bus and truck convoy is stopped for speeding in the film’s opening scene, he takes it upon himself as a betting proposition with his troupe that he can talk his way out of the ticket.

Nightengale’s colloquy with the arresting officer (which he surreptitiously broadcasts back to the bus on a wireless transmitter) is a microcosm of his professional method. Using a combination of shrewd observation, demographic data and an ability to read people, he gets the officer to talk about his most personal problems. And although he does it for all the wrong reasons, Nightengale ends up actually doing the man some good.

When one of his trucks breaks down soon after in Rustwater, Kan. (that’s right, “The Sweet Relish Capital of America”), Nightengale’s business manager Jane (Winger) thinks the gang should just take a few days off. But the reverend, on a whim that turns out to have the usual unforeseen consequences, says no, they’ll set up and do the show right here in the middle of nowhere.

Not so fast, says Will (Neeson), Rustwater’s long and lean sheriff. This town is too poor to afford another revival, too drought- and foreclosure-stricken to allow its hard-earned dollars to go into outsiders’ pockets. Permit denied. But after Nightengale blusters and Jane bats her eyes at the sheriff, who is definitely on the cute side himself, official obstacles (if not professional suspicion) are all but removed.

The most engaging parts of “Leap of Faith” have to do with putting on the reverend’s show, for that’s what it is, complete with the biggest of tents, smoke and lights and a fine choir (the Angels of Mercy, featuring such singers as Albertina Walker and Delores Hall) whose performance of a dozen gospel standards is the film’s most trustworthy pleasure.

Also enjoyable is the peek behind the scenes at the way the reverend’s trusted associates, using an unlikely combination of overheard gossip and modern technology, set up the crowd to believe that Nightengale can work miracles and read the minds of the multitudes. Based on the research of the credited “Cons and Frauds Consultant” Ricky Jay, some of these tricks seem a bit anachronistic, but it is still diverting to see them put into operation.

Richard Pearce, whose credits include “The Long Walk Home,” “Country” and the much underappreciated “Threshold,” is a director who tends to emphasize the good in almost everyone, and as a result even though the reverend’s team is in essence fleecing the lambs of the Lord, we are hard-pressed to believe they are doing anything so very evil.

There is, in fact, so much good feeling floating around this film it practically turns the Rev. Nightengale into a swell fellow. Even though he says unholy things like “Let’s give some empty lives some meaning” while he is offstage, even though the local waitress he has his eye on (Davidovich) tends to regard him as the reincarnation of Judas Iscariot, he comes off as not as bad a guy as he should. And although Steve Martin works very hard, even using an Irish step-dance instructor to help with his onstage footwork, he never succeeds in mesmerizing us or sending chills down our spines the way a character like this ought to do.

The reason all this pleasantness is a problem is that “Leap of Faith’s” screenwriter, Janus Cercone, wants us to believe that several crises of conscience occur in poor old Rustwater, that all kinds of sinners come to see the light in one way or another. But if no one seems irredeemably lost to begin with, if everyone is simply misguided or on the wrong track, the changes they go through are too pat and unsurprising to make much of a dramatic impact. After all, it’s the road to hell that is supposed to be paved with good intentions, not the one to heaven.

‘Leap of Faith’

Steve Martin: Jonas

Debra Winger: Jane

Lolita Davidovich: Marva

Liam Neeson: Will

Lukas Haas: Boyd

A Michael Manheim/David V. Picker production, released by Paramount Pictures. Director Richard Pearce. Producers Michael Manheim, David V. Picker. Executive producer Ralph S. Singleton. Screenplay Janus Cercone. Cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti. Editor Don Zimmerman, Mark Warner, John F. Burnett. Costumes Theodora Van Runkle. Music Cliff Eidelman. Production design Patrizia Von Brandenstein. Art director Dennis Bradford. Set decorator Gretchen Rau. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (some language).