That's Lathrop on the right.
Thats Lathrop on the right.
  • That’s Lathrop on the right.

Around here, we love us some Lathrop Walker. He’s a charismatic, versatile, tall actor, expressive with his long hands and brown eyes, and equally believable as a Romeo or a competitive jerk in a suit.

But I don’t love him in The Penitent Man. Because I don’t love anything about The Penitent Man. A dull, simple film written, directed, and produced by Nicholas Gyeney—unless you’re a genius, don’t be the writer, director, and producer of your own films: you need someone around to yank the reins on your bad ideas—the movie is about a frustrated young psychiatrist (psychologist?) and expecting father. (That’s Lathrop.)

One day, an old guy from the future sits down on his couch and blows his mind with some vague crap about wormholes and time travel and how time travel is dangerous because toying with the past can totally screw up the order of the universe (didn’t we already cover this in Back to the Future?) but he’s come back anyway to try and set something right and you know—because this is a hacky, thin movie that was written and directed and produced by one dude—that it’s not going to go well.

The film—made in Seattle and featuring a goofy, dudes-from-the-future climax in front of the Biltmore apartments on Capitol Hill—takes place almost entirely in two conversations: Lathrop talking to the old guy and Lathrop talking to his friend, a teacher with one eye named Ovid. They talk about his marriage, the past, the future, whether or not a weird old man claiming to be from the future is to be believed, but none of it is very interesting.

I’d love to throw some laurels at the hometown kids in this year’s SIFF. (We do like hometown filmmakers.) But not to Mr. Gyeney. It wouldn’t be fair to you, your hard-earned money, or your fleeting hours on planet earth.

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....

21 replies on “The Penitent Man Should Be Ashamed of Itself”

  2. I don’t know the film. But the main difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist is that psychiatrists can prescribe medication. But don’t worry, most people don’t know the difference.

  3. I thought that Lance Henriksen’s performance was pretty good, actually, but he didn’t have a lot to work with. The plot itself was fairly mundane for a time-travel plot, and within a few minutes of the first conversation between Lathrop Walker’s character and Henrikson’s, I could see the “twist” at the end of the movie.

    I didn’t stay for the Q & A out of fear of asking some very bitchy questions, but my fear is that this film will get praised by everyone that saw it because it’s “local”, and that this is the sort of “Seattle film” that we’re sending out to the rest of the world as our best work…

  4. Lance Henriksen, really? As bad as it sounds now I want to see it. Probably not as great as Savage Dawn, though.

  5. I’ll take your word for it that Lathrop Walker is a decent actor. He was pretty awful in The Penitent Man, and I was sad that this was supposed to be some great talent coming out of Seattle.

  8. To: Brendan
    Are you one of the Disgruntled Filmmakers from Seattle, to describe the Penitent Man, like this.?
    You must be. It takes a certain intelligence to understand the message in the movie, but
    once you do, you will appreciate it. Lance Henriksen offered a superb performance as well
    as the local actors.
    It does create a stir; people are still talking about it. While we can freely express our
    views, is it really necessary to go to the length you did in undermining this talented young
    director?
    I dont know how old you are. Is it possible that more than 23?

  9. Whoa whoa whoa gastonsmovies, hold on there. Did you see the Penitent Man? It was horrible. I mean just horrible. I too blew out before the Q&A, as did over half the audience at the 4pm Monday Egyptian showing. Henrikson was the least bad actor in this dudbomb.

    At our showing, the director came out beforehand and said “this movie isn’t for everyone” – probably based on reactions from the weekend premiere. When the director/writer/producer warns you that you won’t like the movie, LISTEN TO HIM.

    I wish I had been warned about how bad this movie was before I went, not 30 seconds before it started.

  10. This was a truly horrible movie that earned the lowest possible rating from me and everyone who was unfortunate enough to see the film with me. The premise is boring, the acting hilariously off, and the writing is something you might expect from an overindulged, undertalented third grade whose parents had sent him to a summer film camp. I would like to know more about how this crap film got funding, not to speak of a slot in the film festival. Is the “local” category really that uncompetitive?

  11. I was also at the Monday showing at the Egyptian and for only the third time in my life I walked out of a movie. 20 minutes was more than enough to get a sense of the movie. Turgid dialog and terrible, terrible acting. Lathrop couldn’t make any more sense of his part than the audience. Lance Henriksen showed more range. He went all the way from “reading from an invisible script” to “reading from an invisible script while grinning like a maniac”. If we had seen more of Seattle, I might have stayed longer. Nothing to recommend it. I normally like Mr Henriksen.

  12. I think the chances are high that the commenter “gastonsmovies” is the director/writer of this movie. The writing style is similar and the praise seems about as genuine as the IMDB comments

  13. This sounds like this year’s “The Whole Truth”…did anyone see that one last year, and would you equate the quality of writing and acting (or lack of) to that horrid bomb? I had a feeling about this after watching the trailer…that doesn’t always give it away, but sometimes it’s painfully obvious.

    I spoke to someone “in the know” (read: an anonymous SIFF staff member) last year about how the above referenced movie got into the festival. They stated that the film had paid a living wage to a lot of Seattle actors and crew, and hence had a bit more pull with getting SIFF exposure.

    I think it’s great that SIFF is willing to make time slots available for local talent, but if this is as bad as the reviewer and other posters indicated, it could also be a disservice to the filmmaker if they weren’t at least given some critical feedback and perhaps an initial rejection. Perhaps that feedback could have been used to make time for a re-shoot/re-edit, and possibly result in a better quality film that could be submitted to the next festival. Just my two cents…I don’t pretend to know anything about festival programming or movie making.

  14. Never have I ever been driven from a theater by a film in my life…until now. Yes it was horrible and insulting. His whole point was to see if a feature film could be built around a single conversation at it’s core. Well, yes but not by this new director.

    I was the first to write a scathing (but technical) review of it on SIFF’s website being a film maker myself. But I was a bit surprised that the Director, Nicolas Geyney himself, found me on facebook and fired back…accusing me of being a bitter Seattle Film maker.

    No…this is a film town, and a SCI/FI town and the bar here is really high for the SCI/FI Genre. He further stated that “most Seattle Film makers over 40 who haven’t done anything make the mistake of doing a small feature without a star in it.” Yet Linas, who made backwards said during Q&A “too many film makers write movies around a star as it’s only draw.” The star system is over Nicolas. I’m glad you made your debut and that you filmed it here but I’m sticking to my guns.

    Don’t get me wrong, Lance Henricksen is Amazing and one of my favorite actors. His voice nearly rivals that of James Earl Jones. But he was way too big for this film and buried his co-star. I was pretty mad – all that money, gear and resources and didn’t know what to do with it. Damn it!!

  15. The glowing comments are mostly by friends and family of the director (at least the positive ones are). One of the IMDB reviews is by his mother. I know this because I went to high school with him and recognized most of the usernames as variations on people in and around the community he grew up in. He’s unfortunately one of those people who has had too many cheerleaders in his life and is finally getting people who are criticizing the work itself and not blindly supporting him because they’re friends. Nick is a nice guy, but he should probably stick with directing, because I’ve never been impressed by his writing.

  16. THE SEATTLE STRANGER AND THE SEATTLE TIMES SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES,
    but not The Penitent Man!
    I was under the impression that movie critics (even in the US) has a role to fulfill; that is
    to inform the potential viewers of the positive and negative findings about the film.
    Obviously, it is not the case with the SEATTLE STRANGER.
    Originally, I was just curious to see the opinion about The Penitent Man. (My friends and I
    happened to like it, very much.) I was stunned to see the title, I was shocked to read the
    the personal attacks on the director of the movie… made by the reporters of the STRANGER; Brendan Kiley, Paul Constant, Dan Savage and their appointees.
    Well, I am only here on an assignment not related to the movie business, but I am an avid
    movie goer. Wherever I travel, I don’t miss an opportunity to watch a few films. Since I am
    here until the 5th of June, my friends picked a few movies from Siff. One of them was The Penitent Man. To see this movie stepped on, the director being attacked on every level and every forum; caused my suspicion to arise and let my profession step in. I smelled conspiracy and I found one. I emailed the director, but he did not know any of these reporters from
    earlier times. So I had to find the common denominator between the Strangers’s reporters
    and the director of this movie. After exchanging a few emails, the answer is clear. A reporter
    from the Seattle Times- Mark Rahner is holding personal grudges against the director of The
    Penitent Man. In an email he threatens to use his position with the Seattle Times to harm
    the director’s career. It is not bad for first attempt; his buddies from the Stranger do the job
    for him…just it’s an overkill, and as such, it is not too difficult to discover.
    Well, my name is Gaston Giraud and I have to leave now. Will be back for the libel suit, though.

  17. I’m not associated with any of those people. I was never “appointed” by anyone at the Stranger. (I *have* been disappointed by Stranger staffers before…) And I think it stunk to high heaven.

  18. Oh for the love of God. Thank you, gastonsmovies, you are obviously one of those rare intelligent movielovers. Brenden Kiley is clearly a bit of a hack. I don’t get why someone would not see the coolth in this movie. It was the best SIFF film I’ve seen. Oh, did we already cover the whole fucking with time in Back to the Future? Well, I sure am glad to hear that we’re not allowed to repeat any themes from movies. You really should get to picking apart Goodfellas for their mafia theme…I mean, didn’t we already cover that in the Godfather? Yikes. The actors were excellent, the whole movie really makes one ponder it all, and you all really should have stayed for the Q and A, which I did…it was definitely rewarding. I implore the makers of this film if they’re reading this…don’t listen to these ridiculous, completely unconstructive criticisms.

  19. Movie sucked Dick and so does Nicholas …. u should be ashamed to call Urself a director. Producer. And whatever else u take credit for. U use people and their good nature to make ur films that blow more chunks then a prom queen nite before rehearsals. Do Urself a favor and stick to the classics.

  20. Fuck you Nicholas Geyney. Not only do you make Seattle look bad with you’re untalented shit, you make the entire film industry look bad. Please don’t make anymore movies, please, please. I did a little research and found a copy of “the falling” which was (oh my god) awful. Do you have any respect for talented artists? How do you get funding? What did you learn at USC? Oh and fuck USC for even accepting you, I don’t understand. Honestly, I have never been more upset after watching a terrible movie. Pacing – horrible, editing – horrible, script – HORRIBLE, directing – HORRIBLE!!!… You’re arrogance is disgusting. I really don’t know how to emphasize any harder that you NEED to stop making movies. I guess I can give you some props for producing this terd because somehow you raised money for this but then I can’t give you props because you produced this, straight shit. This is not a film, it is not a movie, it is an extra student film that could have been shot in a fucking hour. I just don’t want to stop writing because I can’t stress enough how bad of a filmmaker you are. I hate that I even have to call you a filmmaker because you are not one. Not at all. You are obviously an insecure fat wannabe trying to make up for a shitty high school experience — NOBODY CARES! GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!

  21. Fuck you Nicholas Geyney. Not only do you make Seattle look bad with you’re untalented shit, you make the entire film industry look bad. Please don’t make anymore movies, please, please. I did a little research and found a copy of “the falling” which was (oh my god) awful. Do you have any respect for talented artists? How do you get funding? What did you learn at USC? Oh and fuck USC for even accepting you, I don’t understand. Honestly, I have never been more upset after watching a terrible movie. Pacing – horrible, editing – horrible, script – HORRIBLE, directing – HORRIBLE!!!… You’re arrogance is disgusting. I really don’t know how to emphasize any harder that you NEED to stop making movies. I guess I can give you some props for producing this terd because somehow you raised money for this but then I can’t give you props because you produced this, straight shit. This is not a film, it is not a movie, it is an extra student film that could have been shot in a fucking hour. I just don’t want to stop writing because I can’t stress enough how bad of a filmmaker you are. I hate that I even have to call you a filmmaker because you are not one. Not at all. You are obviously an insecure fat wannabe trying to make up for a shitty high school experience — NOBODY CARES! GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!

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