Perhaps the surest proof of the success of 'faith-based' films is the backlash represented by the likes of But I'm a Cheerleader and, now, Forgiving the Franklins. These dark satires aren't anti-religion like Bill Maher's forthcoming Religulous, but are anti-religious extremism.
With a color palette that would have seemed garish before Speed Racer, writer-director-cinematographer-producer-editor Jay Floyd tells the story of a devout North Carolina family that undergoes a conversion that makes them more open about their sexuality.
Like Tracey Ullman's concussion in John Waters' A Dirty Shame, of which this is a superior and far subtler version, a car crash changes the perspective of three members of the Franklin family.
Frank Franklin ( Robertson Dean ) is the patriarch, a square-jawed square. His wife Betty is played by Teresa Willis as the love child of Lily Tomlin and Mary Woronov. She tends the house and bakes cakes for bake sales. While their bedroom activity illustrates the joylessness of sex, Betty is an 'ice queen' in a way that doesn't involve frigidity and also smokes in secret.
High school football-playing Brian ( Vince Pavia ) listens to showtunes. 'This music is so faggy,' 15-year-old sister Caroline ( Aviva ) teases. Brian protests that their dad listens to it, too, and it's OK because 'he was in the Navy.' Brian says his coach is 'hard on' him ( pun intended, but not by Brian ) . Caroline is a cheerleader who starves herself.
When their family car is rammed by a truck, Caroline sustains a hip injury that may end her cheerleading career. The other three seem to be in a coma for three days but actually go to a kind of purgatory, where they have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ ( Pop DaSilva ) , who looks nothing like his photos. He's busy cutting down crosses, which he disses as a 'marketing tool.'
Jesus pulls apples out of the Franklins' brains. If they represent the fruits of the tree of knowledge in Genesis, they have the opposite effect. The trio emerge from their comas with their sexuality heightened, and they don't care who knows it.
Brian comes home beaming because Coach Caldwell ( Khris Scaramanga ) buttfucked him in the shower. His parents are glad he's finally out, especially Mom, who always knew: 'He's such a dreamboat and there's never been a girl.' Caroline, however, is horrified: 'My brother's a fag and my parents don't even care!'
Betty starts retrieving the morning paper wearing nothing but her slippers and, more significantly, starts communicating with her husband about her sexual desires. When they openly discuss the improvement in their sex life they become outcasts in the community. Caroline seeks protection from Peggy Lester ( Mari Blackwell ) , her godmother and Betty's best friend—until now. Peggy has an agenda even she may not realize she has.
Somewhere in there this dark comedy loses its sense of humor as it plunges toward a conclusion, even though the stylized, over-the-top acting assures us its tongue is still in its cheek.
Most of the actors attack their roles with relish and a consistent style, stopping short of winking at the audience. Pavia looks too old for 18 but Floyd says he chose him for that reason: 'I didn't want the scenes with the Coach to be too loaded. The sex scene needed to look like it was between two consenting adults because it is between two consenting adults.' To reinforce this he has the Coach ask Brian if he's 18 and willing before fucking him.
Despite all the mutual consent the R rating is partly because of 'a scene of aberrant intimacy.' Whether that refers to the gays in the shower or the straights with ice cubes we may never know.
Forgiving the Franklins deserves a spot on the Cult Classics shelf next to Paul Bartel's Eating Raoul. It may show a few self-styled religious types that their form of virtue is its own punishment.
