THE STORY – In 1997, thirty-nine members of the American cult known as “Heaven’s Gate” committed the largest mass suicide to ever take place on American soil. This is their story.
THE CAST – Vera Farmiga, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons, Grace Caroline Currey & Simon Rex
THE TEAM – Michael Gallagher (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 104 Minutes
The fascination with cults in popular culture seems to have risen significantly over the past few decades, especially during the compulsive era of true-crime storytelling that churns out the grizzliest of tales into bingeable content. There’s something to be said for differing generations stumbling their way towards the tales of zealots, swooned into a sect that often fills the space left by something missing from their lives. Whether it’s Charles Manson or Jim Jones, these figures are all but stains in the history of this country, yet represent an inoperative oddity so ingrained with the religious iconography in American culture. This fascination has certainly found its way to filmmaker Michael Gallagher, whose latest film, “The Leader,” focuses on one of this country’s most infamous tragedies, the mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate community, to deliver a mostly effective cautionary tale.
Gallagher smartly anchors this decades-spanning drama through the eyes of Tim Blake Nelson’s Marshall Heff Applewhite and Vera Fermiga’s Bonnie Lu Nettles, two lost souls desperate for meaning in life. Their relationship transcends physical boundaries and enters a spiritual plane as Bonnie, a nurse in a loveless marriage, abandons her earthly responsibilities to run off with her former patient, Heff, in hopes of building something that lasts. One would assume that this relationship would suffice, but Bonnie soon buys into Heff’s grand ideas that one day life beyond our Earth would return and save us from the pains on the planet in a rapture-like event. Together they form Heaven’s Gate, a cult-like society blending aspects of Christianity and UFOism into a gateway for troubled souls to shed their ties to the world itself. Under the guise of community, the members of Heaven’s Gate soon realize that absolute devotion comes at a price.
Gallagher’s direction is firm, instantly drawing audiences in from the film’s opening moments that set the stage for a disaster waiting to happen. While at its core, “The Leader” is cognizant of films of this pedigree, it takes the familiarity of true-crime stories and attempts to ground it in an emotional display of devotion. The screenplay by Gallagher latches onto the idea that the dangers posed by extremism slowly erode one’s individualism, compelling conformity to a vision that ultimately isn’t worthwhile. The nonlinear storytelling helps “The Leader” stand slightly above other biopics in this vein, telling the full story of Do and Ti’s journey, from the events leading up to their first meeting to the public collapse of Heaven’s Gate, where the story falters in Gallagher’s necessity to follow a handful of members whose issues are fundamentally rooted in the same source. At that point, it’s up to the strength of performers like Jim Parsons and Simon Rex to make the most of it, even though those characters and their dynamics aren’t as strong as the core relationship that Farminga and Blake Nelson bring to life.
Blake Nelson’s performance is a reminder that he is one of the more underappreciated performers working today. The amazing ability he has to morph his energy, visibly altering himself on screen from a man hoping to lead others to peace into one inevitably corrupted by a foreboding presence that has plagued man for thousands of years, is riveting to watch. Blake Nelson rolls with every punch till the very end, but it’s Farmiga whose stern vitality balances the two performances. Their chemistry is the reason “The Leader” works, even as the film begins to rouse audiences with the same ideas over and over again. It’s nice to see an actor of Farmiga’s caliber get a role with enough to work with, as this one is the best she’s been in some time. Parsons and Rex have moments to shine, but more often than not, their inclusion in the film is a distraction.
“The Leader” also benefits from being a handsomely assembled independent feature, as Ben Mullen’s cinematography helps bring Gallagher’s vision to life, establishing a sinister atmosphere that haunts the entire project. Gallagher and Mullen’s found-footage approach is edited with necessary precision by editor Joel Jay Blacker. It’s impossible for “The Leader” to shake away that true-crime “essence completely in its attempt to be something more. There’s enough from Gallagher’s direction and the performances to elicit a haunting tale that will, more surely than not, be one of the more talked-about films playing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
