The Book of Job is rarely considered one of the Old Testament's funniest chapters, save in the darkest and driest sense. God decides to prove the faithfulness of his servant Job by permitting Satan to strip Job of his wealth, then his children and then his health. Job has no idea why he's been singled out for punishment. But he takes each development in stride, until he's reduced to sitting in an ash heap scraping boils with a potsherd. Then he starts demanding some answers from God.

COMMANDMENTS takes this story and puts a twist on it. Seth Warner (played by Aidin Quinn) knows that God is toying with him. His wife vanishes one day at the beach. His house is struck by a tornado. He's fired for no reason other than his boss claims, "My heart is hardened toward you." When Seth climbs to a rooftop to demand an answer for all this misfortune, the response is a lightning bolt that lands him in the hospital. But instead of bowing before God's omnipotence as did Job, Seth fights back. He decides to throw God's rules in His face by breaking all Ten Commandments, one by one.

The potential here is great -- great for black comedy, great for metaphysical exploration. There's also great potential for corniness. However, COMMANDMENTS realizes none of these potentials. It is convincing enough to keep from being hokey. But it never goes beyond the ordinary in its humor or wisdom. It manages to be, in a word, flat.

After the lightning strike, Seth is taken in by his sister-in-law, Rachel (Courteney Cox) and her adulterous journalist husband, Harry (Anthony La Paglia). Harry has little sympathy for Seth, but then, Harry has little sympathy for anyone but himself. The couple watches as Seth methodically honors gods before the Lord, makes graven images and profanes the Sabbath. When he starts to hit the bigger commandments -- theft, adultery, false witness -- Rachel and Harry find out that Seth's battle plan involves them, too.

One problem I had with the story was Seth's apostasy comes too quick. I needed to see more of his suffering, both for comedic value and for an understanding of his character. Seth talks about his shoelaces breaking every day for two years straight -- I wanted to see that. I'm not saying I wanted a pie in Seth's face every two minutes. But I wanted a better build-up of his rocky relationship with God. As it is, Seth's misfortunes are told almost entirely in flashback within the first few minutes. And his announcement that "the Covenant is history" comes too early for me to believe the commandments had a deep, binding meaning for him.

Harry narrates the story and much screen time is devoted to his indiscretions and conflicts with Seth. We rarely get inside Seth's head. Seth becomes less of a character and more a force of nature with which Harry and Rachel must contend. Furthermore, once Seth begins breaking commandments, God vanishes from the story to return only near the end. You don't get much development or understanding of the relationship between Seth and the Almighty. Thus the film becomes less about how Man should deal with God and more about how man should deal with a lunatic in his house.

COMMANDMENTS is an ambitious undertaking for writer/director Daniel Taplitz. He's directed some TV movies in the past; this is his theatrical feature debut. He's done some screenplays, of which the best known is probably THE SQUEEZE starring Michael Keaton. I would say his direction works ok -- the performances work, the images look good and the pacing moves well. The script is well-executed; problem is, it doesn't do all that much.

This is not to say the screenplay is outright dumb. COMMANDMENTS offers an interesting contrast in Seth and Harry -- Seth, a man who believes in God and breaks His commandments in revenge; Harry, a man who believes in nothing and, as he puts it, "breaks five or six commandments a day before lunch." There's also Harry's journalistic investigation of the chief of police using a Federal safe house for licentious liaisons. Through it, Taplitz mirrors divine power and divine law with human power and human law. But when it comes to talking about God, COMMANDMENTS resorts to arguments rehearsed in undergraduate philosophy classes, without attempting conclusion. It rehashes Bible stories, without illumination.

The actors did a fine job with what they were given. Courteney Cox lends a down-to-earth quality that's critical to anchoring the film. Aidin Quinn, with his other-worldly blue eyes, nicely embodies the tortured soul, though at times his fervor is a bit forced. And the more I think about it, the more I'm impressed with Anthony La Paglia. Sure, it was a breeze for him to play a morally-bankrupt scoundrel. But as the film's narrator, he has to maintain some degree of sympathy. I was amazed at how repulsive La Paglia made Harry, without turning him into an outright villain.

The cinematography is very rich... too rich, actually. COMMANDMENTS' directory of photography is Slawomir Idziak, a native-born Pole who won awards for THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE and the visually mesmerizing BLUE. He has once again produced exquisite images, lush with shadows, often painterly in depth. He skillfully manipulates color, moving from flat blues and grays to saturated yellows and green, depending on the mood of the scene. But frankly, he goes overboard. The lighting flashes and shifts so much during COMMANDMENTS' sole love scene, it looks like a live sex show. And by the end of the movie, I was sick and tired of seeing delicate shadows flicker across every face. It seems Taplitz either pushed Idziak's obvious skill too far or let him too much free reign. The look of the film becomes a distraction.

Ivan Reitman executive produced COMMANDMENTS, which isn't surprising. The movie shares a sense of magic with such latter-day Reitman films as DAVE or maybe JUNIOR. However, the inflated seriousness of COMMANDMENTS kills the playfulness typical of Reitman's own films.

I think my feeling toward COMMANDMENTS is more disappointment than dislike. It has a catchy premise, pretty images, decent performances. The laughs it elicits are real. But there's too little laughter for a satisfying comedy and too little revelation for a satisfying drama.

By the way, if you're interested in a successful update of the Job story, check out the play "J.B." by Archibald MacLeish. It's not a comedy but it really tackles the metaphysical questions, which COMMANDMENTS skirts, in an emotionally compelling way. Unfortunately, I'm unaware of any film adaptation of it.

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