Movie Spotlight: Confessional

Francine already knows what she’s going to do. She’s sitting in a confessional to ask for forgiveness before the act, not after. The priest on the other side of the lattice doesn’t know that yet.

Steve Moon wrote and directed Confessional, a two-character film built almost entirely around a single setting, with Ginger Cressman as Francine and Jeff Hartley as the priest. Moon has collaborated with Cressman across multiple projects, and this one started with her. “Ginger and I work together on lots of projects, and we like to challenge each other. We like pushing ourselves creatively.”

Before the act

The premise is immediate and tense. Francine wants absolution for something she hasn’t committed yet. Moon frames this as something essentially human. “All too often we want to take things into our own hands rather than waiting on God. We like things our way.” The decision hasn’t happened, but the asking already has. What she does with the priest’s response is what the film is really about.

What the booth does to people

The setting carries weight. Sacred, cramped, private. “The characters are forced to confront themselves and the decisions they make within this confined space,” Moon says. There’s a specific effect that confessionals have on people who sit in them. “There is a religious and moral connotation to being inside a confessional that brings us to a truth. For some reason, we feel truth can be protected there.”

Ginger sets the bar

Moon didn’t think much about the priest at all during the writing process. He focused on Francine, and on what Cressman would do in the role. “I knew Ginger, the actress playing her, could put the character of the priest, as well as the actor, into decisions he must face. Ginger has a talent and sets the bar high.” The priest’s reactions become a function of whatever Cressman brings into the scene. Jeff Hartley is there to respond.

Say it once

Moon’s aesthetic instinct is minimal. “Less is more. All too often writers and directors want to overtell the story and not let the audience’s imagination take over.” A film that creates suspense through conversation, in a single setting, lives in what isn’t said. “We struggle with what’s in our own minds more so than what comes out of our mouths.” That’s the space the film occupies.

What to know before you press play

“Watch, enjoy, see why Ginger wins awards and why people cast her in their movies,” Moon says. “See how a movie can be basically one setting and tell a story. We go through so much in life, that a place such as a confessional can be where we lay our burdens, our thoughts, our fears, our truths, down. In that, there is consciousness, awareness, forgiveness.”

Drama

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Streaming now on Relay.