SAY YOUR PRAYERS is the sort of comedy that some in the extremes of politics say cant be made anymore. The story of two brothers Vic and Tim (Henry Melling and Tom Brooke), orphans and hitmen no less, bent on the murder of a famed Atheist Professor Huxley (Roger Allam). Driven by a dodgy mix of dogmatic religion and inflexible ideals, they seemingly cant stop themselves from attacking others. Well one cant, Vic. Tim seems less angry. Less explosive. Far more led then in the lead.

This is the point at which you ask, where is the comedy? It does not sound like LIFE OF BRIAN. I say its a different humour. More observational, less confrontational. But being observational is not being asinine. It gets the laughs in with occasional wit and a whole heap of pointing. The blinded rage of right wingers. The swaggering contempt of academics. The middle ground held by the stand offish. Imelda (Vinette Robinson) is the middle ground is shown cleverly to be hard to chart due to a lack of engagement from media. We are as much to blame as we like fists and screams. The media cant sell a person talking directly and without finding fault.

Religion is the centrepiece of the film and it asks an interesting set of questions. All transposed on three versions of the so called godly. One, Tim is akin to the vision of the Christian of blind faith and non questioning belief. The second is Vic, angry and violent. Like the radicals of all religion. Paper thin faith mixed with a whole heap of extremes, plucked often from random to validate their actions. The third is Father Enoch (Derek Jacobi) is the most interesting and funny. and self doubt. This is where SAY YOUR PRAYERS finds it hard to finish.

Religion is good for a laugh. Religious people laugh at themselves all the time. So do the non religious. And SAY YOUR PRAYERS gets this well. It just cant find the solution to its questions. It keeps asking more and more. Observation after observation. We have no weight in the end….

His faith seems to be built on a