‘Commandments’ Uneven, Promising

What a lot of stories need, at their center, is a really rotten subordinate character to capture our hearts and minds. “Othello” has Iago, for instance. In “Paradise Lost,” Satan manages to steal most of the scenes. In “Commandments”--a promising debut by writer-director Daniel Taplitz--it’s Anthony LaPaglia.

LaPaglia’s Harry Luce--journalist, adulterer and all-around ne’er-do-well--isn’t the centerpiece of the story. But he lurks about its perimeter, providing the link to sordid humanity that keeps “Commandments” at least remotely in touch with our planet.

Harry’s brother-in-law, Seth Warner (Aidan Quinn), has the real problems. He’s lost his pregnant wife to the sea, his house to a freak tornado, his job to the caprices of bureaucrats. He asks why, and lightning strikes him. It even maims his dog. So he decides to break each of the Ten Commandments, just to see if he can get a rise out of God.

Taplitz is on audacious ground--does thunder make him nervous? Through Seth, he’s asking those questions that have plagued agnostics since time began: If there’s an all-powerful, all-merciful God, then why is there suffering in the world? Taplitz obviously can’t answer his own question and his ending is a complete cop-out. But at the same time, this isn’t your normal comedy material. And, like Satan, it keeps you interested.

Having moved in with Harry, Harry’s wife Rachel (Courteney Cox) and Harry’s guitar collection, Seth starts out violating the easier commandments--he worships at a Buddhist temple, carves a graven image of an Indian death goddess, blasphemes in a library, dishonors his father at his synagogue (Seth’s late mother was Christian, so he’s a pan-denominational sinner). He doesn’t observe the Sabbath. He covets Rachel and it’s mutual. Adultery isn’t going to be a problem.

His task gets stickier when he gets to “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” which I always thought was the Fifth Commandment but here is the Sixth (it all depends on how you read Exodus, presumably). Harry--a newspaper reporter who sleeps with his sources, lies with bravado, collects guitars he can’t play and is investigating the police chief (Pat McNamara)--gets some well-deserved comeuppance via Seth’s Old Testament wrath, including the aforementioned wife-coveting.

Quinn is fine as Seth, although his character’s rather radical plan of action is never entirely put across; explaining what he wants to do is something the film has to get over with so it can proceed to the actual sinning. Cox is lovely, but a bit inaccessible. LaPaglia, though, is refreshingly vile and ultimately humanized.

What’s most troublesome about “Commandments” as a film, though, is the way it swings so casually from urban fantasy to urban realism without marrying the two in a really convincing way. It’s OK that Seth isn’t given any counseling or Prozac as long as the rest of the film’s tone falls into line. But a lot of scenes--to say nothing of the theology--seem illogical or contrived. Taplitz, for all the promise he shows, does seem sincere about his questions, but he has to remember: Thou Shalt Not Commit Unresolved Differences With the Almighty to Film Without Fear of Retribution.

* MPAA rating: R for language and sexuality. Times guidelines: semi-obscured sex scenes, vulgarity and adult situations.

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‘Commandments’

Seth Warner: Aidan Quinn

Rachel Luce: Courteney Cox

Harry Luce: Anthony LaPaglia

Melissa Murphy: Pamela Gray

Police Chief Warren: Pat McNamara

A Northern Lights Entertainment Production released by Gramercy Pictures. Producers Michael Chinich, Joe Medjuck, Daniel Goldberg. Director Daniel Taplitz. Screenplay Taplitz. Cinematography Slawomir Idziak. Editor Michael Jablow. Costumes John Dunn. Music Joseph Vitarelli. Production designer Robin Standefer. Art director Stephen Alesch. Set decorator Kate Yatsko. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes.

* At theaters throughout Southern California.