Directed by Jon Avnet
Screenplay by Eric Nazarian & Jon Avnet based on the book The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach
Starring Richard Gere, Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford 
MPAA rating: R for disturbing material, sexual content and brief drug use
Running time: 1 hour and 57 minutes

by Ian Hrabe

Two years and three months after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, Three Christs has finally made its way to theaters and VOD. When a movie takes that long to get to a place where people can actually see it, it’s usually a sign that the movie isn’t very good. And lo, despite boasting an excellent supporting cast, Three Christs makes it abundantly clear why it sat on the shelf for over two years. The main issue here is that the film takes the premise “Psychiatrist Conducts Study on Three Paranoid Schizophrenics Who All Believe Themselves to be Jesus Christ” and neglects the commonly held notion that movies should have a “story” or “purpose.” The result is a colossal slog that makes everyone look bad. 

Based on Milton Rokeach’s psychological study The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, Three Christs starts with a fascinating premise. Richard Gere plays psychiatrist Dr. Alan Stone who sets out to research the strange case of three schizophrenics who believe they are Jesus, all of them housed at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan. The schizophrenics are played by three of television’s best character actors: Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins, and Bradley Whitford. How can you go wrong with those guys? That is pure set it and forget it casting, which leads me to believe the blame for this movie being not only boring, but borderline offensive in its portrayal of people living with mental illness, rests solely at the feet of director Jon Avnet. 

At no point does Three Christs let its purpose be known. In addition to lacking a point of view, there just isn’t enough in the script to make this a compelling story. The schizophrenics interact, they fight with each other, and Richard Gere dons a baffling Donald Trump-esque accent to deliver an extremely unconvincing portrayal of the doctor studying them. It’s masochistic watching three great actors like Dinklage, Goggins, and Whitford mugging as mental patients. The performances are varying degrees of cringeworthy, with Goggins being the least (though still rough), Whitford’s being the most, and Dinklage’s being somewhere in the middle. It’s brutal stuff, and while it’s not going to ruin any of their careers, it’s a damn shame to see such a waste of talent. 

With the right amount of nuance, this story can work. The film wants to show you the layers of these paranoid schizophrenics, but Avnet doesn’t have a deft enough hand to get it there. The film toys with giving these guys humanity they need to make this thing tick and falls back on the central plot of Dr. Stone fighting to keep his study alive and out of the hands of prying administrators. It’s supposed to be about how these three Christs end up saving Dr. Stone when he is trying to save them--so says the quote that pops up on screen at the end of the film--but this idea never gels as Dr. Stone never seems particularly troubled in his home life (though he does drop a trauma bomb at the very end that might have been useful earlier on to give his character another dimension) or in need of saving. Three Christs just sort of...exists. It is not a movie that was demanding to be made, and at no point does it demand your attention. 

*In theaters and on demand, Friday, January 10, 2020