UNITED STATES
The New York Times
By KATHRYN SHATTUCK
Published: February 4, 2013
9 P.M. (HBO) MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD (2012) Alex Gibney documents the case of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, above, a Roman Catholic priest in Wisconsin who died in 1998 after having molested dozens if not hundreds of children in his care at a boarding school for the deaf, resulting in a trail of denial and cover-up from rural America to the Vatican. Mr. Gibney’s “methods are a blend of solid journalism and cinematic sensationalism,” A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times. “The reliance on melodramatic music and lurid — though not explicit — re-enactments does not seem to me to make the movie more powerful, but rather the opposite. There is something to be said for a clear and unblinking recitation of facts, and thankfully Mr. Gibney does a lot of that.” But the heart of the film, “the real source of its emotional impact,” Mr. Scott said, “lies in a remarkable series of interviews with some of the men, most now in their 60s, who endured Father Murphy’s assaults when they were children and who have worked for almost 40 years to bring his crimes to light.” John Slattery, Jamey Sheridan, Chris Cooper and Ethan Hawke interpret their words.
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