Mini-Revu: Prayers For Bobby
Monday, January 26th, 2009
This sad but true story as an uplifting film intends to provide spiritual accommodation to both those persons who commit suicide and those left behind to cope with the suicide of a loved one, mainly one who cannot cope with the struggle of being homosexual in a heterosexual society or world ruled through the maternal earthly representative of a judgmental God.
Bobby is a teenager who is outed to his parents and entire community by his supposedly ‘Christian’ brother who breaks a promise to keep Bobby’s struggle secret until Bobby can further work it out. Bobby never successfully works it out, is told by his religious mother that she will not have a gay son, and after a short stint with a boyfriend and eventual estrangement from his family, he fatally falls from a bridge into the path of a tractor trailer.
Bobby’s mother, played very well by Sigourney Weaver, does a decent job questioning the matter, however, her own faith is thin and moves a little too quickly to acceptance of the dogma she so vehemently opposes in most of the film. While I have never lost a child to suicide and been forced to look for answers, I think the film should have dragged out a little more in developing the mother’s struggle.
All of the characters affected by Bobby and his death are caught in this struggle, which is important since his struggle actually becomes theirs, and they don’t want it! Sadly, because of ignorance and homophobia, both the matter of homosexuality and suicide as unforgivable sins are divisive topics. Unfortunately, fundamentalists who happen to view this film will find vindication in the social gospel move made by the mother. (more…)
