XL Popcorn – The Rapture

List Item: Watch all of the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”
Progress: 885/1009Title: The Rapture
Director: Michael Tolkin
Year: 1991
Country: USA

I was really hoping to further increase my lead this Christmas break but, like I mentioned before, Covid-19 hit the bubble and it hit me. I am counting myself lucky that, until now, I have had mild symptoms. However, I have had really bad fatigue and headaches – so I am finding my lucid moments few and far between. My lovely husband is surrendering the time today for a 1001 movie… which he thought would be light.

The Rapture is not a light movie. I am not entirely sure where that came from – but this is a film about a woman who suddenly finds God to the point of joining a cult where they are certain about the upcoming rapture as told to them by their child prophet. She has visions of a pearl spinning in a black void and that she must take her young child to the desert in order to meet God and ascend to heaven as part of the rapture.

This is one of those movies that could have been overly preachy for or against religion. However, The Rapture never goes there and instead works well as being fairly detached from that sort of judgment and instead presents the world through the eyes of Sharon as she comes to and acts upon her beliefs.

The final sequence, where the rapture actually occurs, leaves a lot to be desired – but that’s more a budget issue than anything. Like, with a concept like this I can imagine how this film would have had a hard time getting investors to improve that sequence. There are parts of it that work exceedingly well, but then there are some where Tolkin did the best he could, but it just didn’t look great.

Maybe if those investors knew in advance just what a brilliant performance Mimi Rogers would give in the main role – could have loosened some purse strings. She is brilliant as the born-again doomsday-believing woman who we see at the various stages of her belief and love of God. The sheer desperation later in the film that she shows as a contrast to her being moon-eyed about discovering a love of God is extraordinary. How she didn’t become a massive star after this is beyond me.