- Title: Chapel
- IMDb: link
Opening with a murder during a marriage ceremony that didn’t even happen, Chapel is a failed attempt at a psychological thriller. After waking up from a five-month coma with no memory of who he is, “Cohen” (Jeremy Sumpter) begins a relationship with his nurse Sofia (Pardis Saremi) building a new life together (apparently built entirely on sex) but is haunted by flashes from his previous life while fighting his psychiatrist’s (Melinda Yeaman) attempts to help him remember.
At the same time Sofia’s testosterone-fueled ex (Kyler Steven Fisher) is investigating a kidnapping and murder in that area who apparently likes Cohen as the prime suspect, despite his gut being guided more by jealousy than anything resembling evidence. Given his prior relationship with Sofia, there’s no chance he’d be allowed to continue this case after aggressively targeting her current fiancé with no evidence, but, then again, common sense isn’t a big theme in writer/director Courtney Paige‘s script.
For some reason, Cohen begins spending time at a local hotel meeting an odd assortment of characters including the sister (Carol Anne Watts) of the murdered girl (Corynn Treadwell) who attempts to jump his bones and the proprietors of the diner and hotel (Taryn Manning, Nicholas de Graffenreid, and Lochlyn Munro) who act increasingly odd to him in every scene (although, to be fair, his actions are just as awkward).
For a film like this to work, relying on a larger mystery slowly revealed in shards of moments, you have to sell both the character and story to the audience allowing them to invest in the time needed to see it through to the end. Chapel, like the character of Cohen, doesn’t put in the effort. We know Sofia cares for him but we see no reason for her to do so outside of the bedroom. We know he has a hidden past tied to this missing girl but why should we care? Eventually we’re given some twists and turns revealing Cohen’s true identity, what happened to the young woman, and how the chapel scene works into the story, but by then it’s likely you will have long given up caring about Cohen, Sofia, his mysterious past, or any other aspect of Chapel.
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