This is a sombre piece of work, a glimpse into an even more sombre world.  This is a small country town in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, Middletown.  It is atmospherically filmed in dark tones and colours.

Religion is the dominant theme and, while the love of God and the love of Christ are mentioned every so often, that is the last thing one associates with the kind of vengeful religion dramatised here.  The denomination is called ‘The Church of God’.  It is a far cry from the Catholic Church (though one might think of Trevor Howards’s irascible parish priest in Ryan’s Daughter) and it is a far cry from the Anglican Communion.  One reviewer, facetiously remarked at the end of the screening, ‘Four stars, Ian Paisley’!

The Church of God is that kind of Reformed church which has no images in the church itself, gives prominence to the lectern with the scriptures opened on it, does not focus on an altar or a crucifix, a kind of extreme Cromwellian place of worship.

The film opens with the pastor singling out a young boy, Gabriel, as chosen by God to be set apart for a special mission.  His local businessman father, a dominant presence in the village, agrees.  Meanwhile, outside the church, Gabriel’s younger brother, Jim, and his friend taunt and fight with a boy on crutches.  His father gives him a mighty blow on the face for such behaviour in front of the church.  The scene and the mood are well and truly set.

15 years later.  The pastor is retiring and his successor, coming from mission work in Africa, is Gabriel (Matthew Macfadyen from In My Father’s Den and Pride and Prejudice).  Meanwhile, Jim (David Mays from Vera Drake) is living with his pregnant partner, Caroline (Eva Birthistle from Ae Fond Kiss), is in debt, can’t pay the builders of his house while they live in a caravan, bets on the local pub cockfights despite Caroline’s disapproval and has to be a money collector for his still severe father.  Caroline and her mother own the pub.

This is a rather ordinary village that could be anywhere in all of Ireland.  However, the film makes it a segregated enclave: no police, no doctor, no fire brigade, no other churches, which diminishes the credibility of the setting.  However, when Gabriel arrives, unsmiling and stern, he quickly brands it a new Sodom and Gommorah, verbally attacking the people, denouncing Caroline and her lack of faith, burning all the books in his house, wringing the necks of the fighting cocks and smashing the pub – all the while quoting the scriptures.  He does mention the love of God but his behaviour shows he has had no experience of it.  He is more convincing when he quotes a wrathful God.

Things go from bad to worse for Jim and his relationship with Caroline, with his ill father concerning the inheritance, leading to Gabriel erupting in mad and violent behaviour.  Some of this is so extreme, along the lines of hell-and-brimfire preachers, that some non-believing audiences will be tempted to laugh in disbelief. 

However, Middletown is a cautionary tale about literal, puritanical and vengeful religion.

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