You can understand how Marianne (Abby Elliott) thought it was a good idea in “Purgatory” to buy her daughters Beatrice (Ruby McGurrin) and Chloe (Lauren Gravel) some fish to ideally help cushion the blow of announcing that she was separating from their father Joe (John Reynolds) upon their return from summer camp. The idea itself is sound, but it becomes a bad one when the pretense for that announcement is that she has a big surprise for them, with the kids naturally assuming that the gift is the unexpected treat as opposed to the fact they’ll only soon be seeing their mom and dad more sporadically than they’re used to. The awkwardness hardly ends there in the largely winning directorial debut of longtime producer Lindsay Lanzillotta (“Shayda”), working from a nuanced script by Christine Speer, that can feel as if it should be a little funnier than it is yet nonetheless charms as a bemusing and unusually introspective coming-of-age comedy.
Although there’s naturally some immediate dismay, the effects of a relatively amicable divorce aren’t what truly trouble Beatrice as an attendee of Holy Trinity Elementary where a preexisting skepticism about religion only deepens when her parents suddenly are suggested to be sinners by the tenets of their faith. No one in the household is insisting on saying prayers at the dinner table, so it can be assumed that the Gravel family was born into observing Catholicism rather than seeking it out on their own an Beatrice, nearing puberty, is at the precious age of starting to make decisions for herself, regularly visiting Father Malone (J.K. Simmons) for confession when she knows that’s what she’s supposed to do and not completely tuning out Mrs. Nash (Mary Walsh), one of the nuns she has for a teacher, despite not sensing much godliness in her from how strict she is. The disillusionment grows even more as she sees hypocrisy all around her, able to compare what’s going on in her household to the ultra-pious Davies family who loom large with the picture perfect couple of Amy (Julianne Arrieta) and Chad (Justin Nurse) plastered around town with ads for their real estate business and wielding their influence at the school, though Beatrice knows from being a friend of their daughter Margot (Gemma Rosaria Rae) that things are hardly what they seem.
There’s are nods throughout to a wackier version living inside “Purgatory” that some surely would prefer when Marianne takes a romantic interest in the much younger vice principal of her kids’ school and the seats for the Christmas Pageant are immaculately arranged by color for an otherwise mundane shot. (Overall, the film is marvelous to look at like a snow globe from 1983 with cinematographer Evelin van Rei keeping things lively within a generally muted palette.) However, the more melancholy film that emerges feels right when Beatrice can’t see the humor yet in all that’s going on and earnestly attempts to right wrongs she’ll come to learn she has no power to fix nor should she really have any responsibility for. McGurrin acquits herself well as the thoughtful and only somewhat naive Catholic school girl, and she is surrounded by a strong ensemble with Elliott and Reynolds especially good as Beatrice’s parents, allowing for one to see the whole history of how the couple got together in the first place and why their marriage fell apart without the film having to expend much expositional energy. Elliott exudes an optimism and a desire to control her destiny as Marianne that surely helped lift Joe, as played perfectly by Reynolds in being too easily resigned to whatever happens to him, and the fact that they’ll be more complementary being divorced rather than married is a nice twist on the typical dynamic.
Another welcome surprise is a genuinely considerate film about faith when Beatrice can see things about it that she’d like — she’s eager to be involved in the pageant, for instance – but disenchanted by the behavior it seems to force on people. The scenes sprinkled throughout with Simmons’ priest are engaging throughout, first as a bit of comic relief when Beatrice has plenty to confess as her situation at home worsens, but evolves into real wrestling with the person she’d like to be and what god she’d like to pray to, if any. “Purgatory” only spends a year with the Gravels, but you know it’s setting up an eternity and it always feels like time well-spent.
“Purgatory” does not yet have U.S. distribution.