Like, really, really good. A bad actor couldn't have played this role, a good actor would have over-played it, but only a great actor like him would nail it like this. God damn, man, his eyes were incredible. They told the whole story.

The religious overtones were bordering on becoming a bit too overbearing though. There must have been 50 shots of crosses and crucifixes. His farm house had paintings of praying hands and the last supper. Common, everyday phrases like "god help me," and "act of god" here are literally referring to god. (And seeing Forrest Gump on HBO over the weekend reminded me how religious that movie was - Is Zemeckis a born-again Christian or something?) I mean, shots like Denzel and Cheadle (who was also really good) standing there with the church with no steeple in the background the whole time were really on-the-nose.

(Not as on-the-nose as the music, which seems to be a major complaint from some people, but that shit didn't bother me all that much. It was really bad in the first 15 minutes, where it was a constant stream of pop songs narrating the movie, but it became a lot less invasive after that.)

The scene on the flight of stairs symbolized Denzel's moral dilemma in a way (would he continue on a downward spiral to hell, or climb out of the abyss and bring himself closer to god), and I can't image that that the title of movie wasn't a reference to that scene in some way.

I did think the ending could have been better though. Felt a bit too preachy and forced to me. Something more open-ended could have preserved the moral paradox and let you make your own evaluations, but again, Zemeckis seemed so intent on driving home the notion that finding god is the path to redemption that he pretty much had to end it that way. It was no accident that Whitaker muttered "god help me" before his testimony.

Whatever. Denzel engaged the hell out of me, and I was moved by his brave performance. So for that, I came away pleased.

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