Mark Reviews Movies: THREE CHRISTS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 9, 2020

It is curious, but not too surprising, to learn that Milton Rokeach, the psychologist upon whom the main character of Three Christs is based, apologized for the psychological study that's the foundation for this movie. It's not surprising, because Rokeach used lies and manipulative techniques in his attempt to cure three men, all of whom suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, of their delusions—namely, each one believing that he was Jesus Christ.

It's curious, although only in terms of the movie itself. Primarily, it's strange that co-writer/director Jon Avnet made a dramatization of a clinical study that had minimal impact, was contemporarily questioned by those who participated in it, and was, over 30 years ago, ultimately denounced by the man who spearheaded it.

There's one big question, then: Why did Avnet and co-screenwriter Eric Nazarian adapt Rokeach's book The Three Christs of Ypsilanti? One could (and, at some point, probably should) ask the filmmakers this question, but regardless of how they might answer, we have the movie to provide some idea. After all, filmmaker intent is just a goal. The movie itself is the only thing that really matters in determining what a movie is trying to and, ultimately, does say.

This movie, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have any answers for its own premise. It's not an especially enlightening examination of schizophrenia, since the three patients are seen primarily in the context of trying to find a cure for their mental illness. It's not a particularly insightful study of how one man's good intentions lead him into questionable and/or unethical territory, because the movie's protagonist is always presented in positive light. The movie tries to connect the psychologist's belief that he can manipulate the environment and the patients' perspectives with those patients own god-like delusions. Then, though, we run into the same problems again. The psychologist is too kind, too decent, and too good-hearted to be seen in such a way, and the patients' delusions are just presented at face vaule.

There is a simple answer. This case seems to be little more than a curio in the eyes of the filmmakers. There's a certain novelty to the idea that three men, each of whom believes himself to be Jesus, would be placed in the same room together. To say that Avnet and Nazarian see the scenario as a joke would be to unfairly assign an intention that might not be accurate, but they definitely skirt the line between the oddity of the situation and turning these characters into a gag.

The year is 1959, and Dr. Alan Stone (Richard Gere) has quit teaching to become a full-time researcher in the field of psychology. With a generous grant, he takes up operations at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan.

There, he encounters Joseph (Peter Dinklage), who believes he is Jesus Christ from England via Nazareth, and Clyde (Bradley Whitford), who believes he is Jesus Christ "but not of Nazareth." Alan has his new research assistant Becky (Charlotte Hope) look for any other state hospital patients with the same delusion, and she finds Leon (Walton Goggins). Thinking that the inherent contradiction of their shared delusion might help to cure them of the belief, Alan has the three men live in an isolated wing of the hospital, where they participate in regular group meetings.

Those meetings, presumably taken from Rokeach's accounts, make up a good portion of this story. Through them, we see how each patient's initial suspicions about and even anger at the other two gradually becomes mild acceptance and ultimately a friendly bond.

That general sort of development falls in line with the rest of the movie, which mainly deals in generalities. Stone, played with considerable compassion by Gere (which, again, contradicts the eventual discussion that he has developed a kind of god complex), is determined to help or even cure these men, because of his kind heart and empathy for those with schizophrenia (When asked why, he simply and rather wisely says it's because they are so lonely). There's little talk of the process of this study (only the broad goal of curing the men), and as for the actual patients, we're given some back story, which might have been pertinent if the movie actually saw them as more than the sum of the novelty of them being the same room together.

There are some complications, of course. Dr. Orbus (Kevin Pollak), the hospital's superintendent, sees electroshock as the only way of treating his patients, and Dr. Rogers (Stephen Root), who's in charge of the funding, is skeptical of Alan's plan, especially when the doctor and Becky start writing letters to the patients, pretending to be other people. The inclusion of Alan's wife Ruth (Julianna Margulies), who resents not having a similar project and suspects there might be something going on between her husband and his assistant, offers nothing but some unnecessary tension.

The main issue with Three Christs is that Avnet and Nazarian are too uncertain or, perhaps, timid about delving into the story's assorted questions and topics with any depth. The result is a movie as broad in its execution as it is unclear in its true purpose.

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