Full Review

Based on the best-selling novel and stage play of the same name by evangelical author and pastor T.D. Jakes, the quality film deals with difficult subjects -- including sexual molestation and murder -- though in a way which challenges viewers of faith to take seriously the Christian imperatives of love and reconciliation.

Kimberly Elise stars as Michelle Jordan, a young woman raped as a child by her mom's live-in boyfriend Reggie (Clifton Powell). Loretta Devine plays Cassie, Michelle's mother whose fear of "losing her man" and being alone blinds her to the evils perpetrated on her daughter.

The film is bookended by a scene of a revival meeting with Jakes (playing himself) preaching to a packed house. Michelle enters -- distraught -- and approaches the altar. In a sudden fit of rage, she pulls a gun from her handbag and fires off several rounds, killing someone in the crowd. The victim's identity is initially withheld, though it becomes less of a mystery as the story unfolds.

Jakes visits Michelle on death row as she awaits execution. They talk and he coaxes Michelle to open up to him about the painful events which set her downward spiral in motion.

The film see-saws between past and present, as Michelle recounts her tragic tale of childhood abuse and neglect, which she says robbed her of not only her innocence but her hope. In short order, the film proceeds to show how these early violations plunged Michelle headlong into a self-destructive abyss of drug addiction, prostitution and prison, before arriving back where the movie began.

Elise delivers an emotionally penetrating performance, but, sadly, one which will probably be overlooked for Oscar consideration because of the film's limited release. Jakes, who also financed the project, has a presence to match his sizable frame, and exudes a sincerity which is both charismatic and consoling, cultivated no doubt through years of real-life pastoral experience.

Echoing the moral conscience of "Dead Man Walking" and informed by the Christian understanding of each individual's sacred value, the picture attempts to neither justify the characters' wrongdoings, nor minimize their humanity by painting them as irredeemable villains.

Instead, it portrays them as flawed, but still worthy of our compassion and understanding, or at the very least -- as in Reggie's case -- forgiveness. To help in this effort, the film contains soul-searching interludes where each character gets to address the audience directly. Moreover, the film clearly advocates accountability, emphasizing that a vital step on the road to recovery and repentance involves taking responsibility for one's actions.

Lifting its title from the verse in the Gospel of Luke where Christ cures a crippled woman, the grace-filled film speaks to the brokenness in each of us, and manages to maintain a tenor that is both unflinchingly raw and edifyingly hopeful, avoiding, for the most part, any slushy sentimentality.

As directed by Michael Schultz, "Woman Thou Art Loosed" sees sin for what it is: ugly, destructive and spiritually suffocating. But it does not offer pie-in-the-sky piety as an easy antidote to the human condition. Instead the movie agrees with C.S. Lewis that "hell is locked from the inside."

Ultimately, the movie suggests that the key to freeing ourselves from our self-imposed imprisonment is to let go of our anger and accept the gift of God's "harsh and dangerous love," to borrow a phrase from Dorothy Day, which demands that we extend forgiveness to even those least deserving of it.

Due to several instances of violence, including the implied rape of a young girl, a sexual encounter with blurred nudity, recurring drug content and some crude language, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.