In God We Trust

In God We Trust is the latest addition to what appears to be a new genre: God movies. Religion is enjoying a renaissance in America and the film industry obviously intends to cash in. That's all right, but this movie's only message is that Christianity today is too concerned with money. Such innovative criticism.

Feldman plays the role of a Trappist monk who leaves the seclusion of the monastery to raise money to pay the mortgage. Along the way he encounters an unscrupulous traveling minister (Boyle), a "hooker with a heart of gold" (Lasser), and a corrupt, power-hungry TV evangelist named Armageddon T. Thunderbird (his initials are A.T.T. -- get it?)

Armageddon's fortunes are directed through his personal talks with God, but when Feldman sees this Almighty, it's actually (you guessed it) a computer. Feldman proceeds to convert God to Christianity and the computer gives away all A.T.T.'s money by dumping it out a window.

There are no answers, of course, but from a movie which offers us very few laughs, the least we could expect is a few intelligent questions.