Leviticus

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Leviticus and I absolutely loved it!  Arlene Reid (Mia Wasikowska) moves with her son Naim (Joe Bird) to an extremely conservative Christian community in Victoria, Australia.  She finds comfort but he struggles with the repressive environment until he begins a secret relationship with Ryan Whelan (Stacy Clausen).  However, Naim sees Ryan kissing the pastor's son Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt) and, because he is jealous, he outs them to the pastor.  A deliverance healer is called in to perform a ritual on the two of them to cleanse them of their homosexual desires but this summons an invisible entity that stalks them in the form of the one they love.  A malevolent being that looks Naim attacks Ryan and another one that looks Ryan kills Hunter.  When Arlene learns about Naim's feelings for Ryan, she takes him to the deliverance healer to perform the same ritual on him and a spirit that looks like Ryan attacks him.  Naim and Ryan eventually discover that the entity appears whenever they are alone and it becomes difficult for them to determine if the other one is real.  In addition to the physical threat, this is a psychological nightmare for both Naim and Ryan because the one person who makes them feel less alone is now the person they fear the most when they are alone.  Bird and Clausen have tremendous chemistry and I love the way they portray the romance that develops between their characters because this makes what happens to them absolutely heartbreaking as well as terrifying.  Bird, especially, is devastating during the scenes in which he wants so desperately to believe that the person in front of him is actually Ryan.  There is a tension whenever Naim and Ryan are on screen together that is palpable as a result.  This has a lot to say about the damage caused by homophobia, religious extremism, and conversion therapy but I was really struck by the theme of fear and how it is weaponized.  The shapeshifter wants Naim and Ryan to fear each other so that they will repress who they really are but both of them eventually realize that love is more powerful than fear.  I was incredibly moved by this and highly recommend it!