Deception, betrayal, remorse only can be healed with faith. The Last Sin Eater explores the quest for forgiveness only to find the truth around an entire community built on lies.
The Last Sin Eater is a film that is supposed to leave you asking questions. The film accomplishes that, however the questions asked are the wrong ones.
Cadi Forbes (Liana Liberato) a ten-year-old girl is looking for resolve to her guilt behind her responsibility of her little sister’s death. With the passing of her grandmother she learns about the Sin Eater who takes on the sins of the dead that they may find salvation with God. Cadi wants this when she is alive and seeks out the Sin Eater with help from Lilibet (Thea Rose) a friend that only Cadi can see. The Sin Eater agrees to perform the ritual on Cadi and fails in his attempt.
While playing by the creek Cadi and some friends run into a stranger (Henry Thomas) who has with him a book with the answers (the Bible). When Cadi looks for answers about the Sin Eater the stranger points her to a story of the death of Jesus Christ and that he was the last Sin Eater the world needed.
The Stranger is murdered by Borgan Kai (Stewart Finlay-McLennan). Borgan tries to control the village with his own brand of fear and deceit. Then Cadi finally reveals all the lies and deceit accumulated over generations.
There were many holes in the story line. The character of Lilibet was never defined in the film. She was not real; the film had a scene to prove that. The viewer never really knows what Lilibet is she could be the outward mind process of Cadi, an Angle or other supernatural being, or it could be Cadi is mentally traumatized. Lilibet also provided very little in the terms of the main plot. The character seemed senseless to the film.
The stranger does not give much direction around the Bible before he is murdered. Little information was given to anybody about it including Cadi who was spearheading the campaign around the book.
They never reveal the religious beliefs of the village before the stranger came. They spoke about God and did not get into very many specifics about the structure or who God is in their beliefs.
The film was slow to get out all the background information and once it all was received it moved too quickly to have it all resolved.
The questions of theology and philosophy and the themes of religion and salvation get lost in the holes in the story line. That is the main thing missing there are no deep questions, just the questions that have you going, “Huh?”