Professor John Huxley (Roger Allam) is a world-renowned philosopher and critical thinker who has taken the world by storm for his many attacks upon religion, with his attempts to evoke rational thought making him a global sensation, but also a very controversial figure that has as many enemies as he does devoted followers. Two such adversaries come in the form of Tim (Harry Melling) and his brother Victor (Tom Brooke), two wayward young men who were orphaned as children, and raised by Father Enoch (Sir Derek Jacobi), a kindly old priest who has a vendetta against Huxley, and sends his two proteges to the Yorkshire village of Ilkley to eliminate the writer, where he is the keynote speaker at a famous literary festival, and thus has attracted legions of tourists, which allows the young men to blend in seamlessly and accomplish their mission without being detected. The two brothers could not be more different – Victor is a violent, angry young man, while Tim is more subdued and hesitant – a fragile, sheltered individual, he takes umbrage to the fact that he has to be put in such a nefarious position,  especially since he is being made to do something that will essentially go against every Christian principle he has held onto for so long and used as a source of comfort. Their visit to the village isn’t particularly easy – at first, Tim mistakes an ordinary hiker on the ridge for their target, and ends up causing his death, which alerts the police, headed by investigator DCI Brough (Anna Maxwell Martin), a bitter woman who despises her job, but will go to any lengths to get justice. A series of misadventures ensue, including the two brothers trying to cover up their tracks, and the arrival of Father Enoch, who shows himself to be very different from the gentle man of faith that the rest of the world sees him as. Everyone has something to prove, which makes the conflict even more difficult to resolve, especially when dealing with the delicate matter of murder.

Some films tend to come and go without much fanfare, not having anything particularly notable in their fabric that makes them the subject of immediate praise. This means that audiences may miss out on them initially, but through encountering them later on, manage to discover what delights are lurking just out of sight. Say Your Prayers is one such film, a deliriously odd dark comedy that doesn’t have too much in terms of an original storyline (as the concept of two hitmen being sent to eliminate a particular target has been done frequently – the comparisons to In Bruges and The Whole Nine Yards as thematic forerunners are not irrelevant here), but compensates with some terrific performances and a plot that keeps the viewer engaged and enthralled throughout, if not quietly working out the direction the film is going to go based on the adherence to a strict set of narrative constraints that seem to govern most of what director Harry Michell was using as a crutch to move this film forward. Say Your Prayers is undeniably not a perfect film, and its flaws often seem to outweigh the merits at certain points – but as a quaint, unassuming dark comedy that addresses some serious issues with class, tact and humour, it is quite effective. This certainly doesn’t announce itself as some quintessential work of either neo-noir or dark comedy, nor as the definitive work of addressing the disconnect between atheism and faith (not that this is a film that intends to take either side), but rather becomes an entertaining romp through a small Yorkshire village, with plenty of laughs and a great deal of restrained violent to keep us interested enough to look beyond the more glaring problems that persist throughout this well-meaning film.

From the top, it’s important to note some of the areas in which Say Your Prayers doesn’t fare so well, and where it could’ve found some room for improvement. Mainly, this is a film that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It is caught somewhere between darkly comical psychological thriller, and a profound drama about faith, and what religious belief means to certain people, and the lengths to which they’ll go to defend it. These aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, and there have been times such themes have been employed in interesting ways (consider The Boondocks Saints, which had many similarities with this film), but it just doesn’t quite live up to the premise here. There are moments of outright brilliance throughout, showing how immensely capable this film was of achieving the kind of subversive commentary it was aiming for – but it comes at the expense of long stretches consisting of nothing but banal conversations that are not nearly as profound as they appear, and meandering attempts to kickstart the action, only to default back into the realm of almost nihilistic boredom. Michell seems to be struggling quite significantly with the content of the story, and bringing it to the screen in a way that actually pays tribute to its strengths. The tone is far too scattered to make much of an impression, and often falls flat comedically, and fails to build up any momentum when it comes to the more serious conversations that the film is attempting to have. It doesn’t invalidate the numerous merits, but instead fails to deliver on all of its potential, which is truly unfortunate for a film that seemed to genuinely have enough promise to make for a cult classic. Instead, we were given a middle comedy with a few genuine laughs, and not much else.

However, there are certainly a few positive aspects of the film, which help mend the more disconcerting shortcomings. The cast is small but very good, with Harry Melling continuing to make a case for himself as one of the most promising young actors working today, someone who shed the indelible markings of his franchise work, and instead adopts the sheen of a dedicated character actor. He is complemented wonderfully by Roger Allam (whose screentime is tragically limited) as an analogue to the great Christopher Hitchens, capturing the esteemed writer’s devilish charm and particularly intellectual cadences perfectly, and the exceptional Derek Jacobi, who is playing a truly despicable character, but still managing to be so effortlessly charming in his villainy. These characters are well-constructed, and play a significant part in bringing the underlying concepts to the centre, much more than the story itself would have you believe. Say Your Prayers has a very earnest approach to looking at both side of the religious debate at the core of the film – it isn’t interested in taking a stand on either account, and instead makes use of a more bipartisan perspective, showing both sides as being equally irrational in their own way. The moments of revelatory insight are few and far between, but when they hit, the film is truly working on all cylinders and manages to be quite unexpectedly profound in its own way. It may take some time to get to a coherent point, but it all converges into a shocking yet worthwhile climax and conclusion that may leave some viewers cold, but which does allow the previous jumble of seems to make some sense and contribute to the discourse in a very meaningful way.

As a whole, Say Your Prayers may not be a particularly major work, and its relative obscurity is sadly not a great tragedy, since there isn’t much that allows this film to stand out, especially considering there have been multiple attempts to cover similar narrative territory. Instead, rather than looking at this film as some neglected masterpiece, we should acknowledge its strengths as yet another addition into a canon of dark comedies that attempt to take on more serious matters. It’s a film made with precision and a clear sense of where it was hoping to go – its plot may be familiar, but it is still compelling, especially when anchored by such memorable performances. It’s not a film that leaves much of an impression outside of a few amusing sequences where it feels as if it is approaching greatness. The problems come in developing this film into a fully-formed comedy that has a strong idea of where it is heading. It is essentially an hour of exposition, followed by twenty minutes of rapid-fire action, creating a tonal imbalance, since not only is the film stretching to be funny, but its also trying to be profound, which may have been a tall order for a film that maybe didn’t earn it. It’s a peculiar film, one that has a lot of potential but ultimately squanders it without being particularly compelling. It doesn’t mean Say Your Prayers isn’t worth seeking out, and it deserves all the support – it just requires hedging expectations and knowing that this isn’t going to be as flawless as the more thematically-similar films that ultimately are comparable to this. Michell makes a good case for a director we should keep an eye on, especially since this film may be middling, but when it hits the high notes, it shows great promise, and without a bit more refining of his skills, there’s no doubt the director could produce something incredible.