“THEM THAT FOLLOW” My rating: C+
98 minutes | MPAA rating: R
An obscure corner of American culture — a snake-handling religious sect — provides the setting for “Them that Follow,” Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s unconventional coming-of-age drama.
Mara (Alice Englert) has grown up in the rural church where her widowed Bible-thumping father, Lemuel (Walton Goggins), is the preacher. A typical ceremony finds the menfolk of the congregation so moved by the Holy Spirit that they reach into a wooden box and withdraw hissing rattlesnakes.
They’re fulfilling a Biblical prophecy that if they are truly saved, they can handle poisonous serpents and God will protect them.
The snake handling doesn’t freak out Mara. What does give her sleepless nights is the baby growing inside her. It’s the result of an affair with her childhood friend Augie (Thomas Mann), the son of one of the church’s most steadfast members (Olivia Colman).
But Augie has been drifting from the religious community. He’s talking about moving away to find work and, presumably, himself.
Which leaves Mara…where? Her father has approved her betrothal to Garrett (Lewis Pullman), who has no misgivings about the faith; but how’s that going to play when Garrett learns of her condition?
Alice Englert, Olivia Colman
No film that offers both Walton Goggins and Olivia Colman can be dismissed out of hand. They are among our best actors, and here give solid performances.
But “Them That Follow” left me wanting more.
The setting is Somewhere Appalachia (actually it was filmed outside Youngstown, Ohio) and with its autumnal colors the film often resembles Debra Granik’s spectacular “Winter’s Bone.”
Yet “Them…” does’t feel lived in in the same way as Granik’s film; its evocation of a rural religious community feels cursory and often contradictory. This is obviously an outsider’s view of a curious and, to some, frightening phenomenon.
Englert is quietly compelling as the pregnant Mara; Kaitlyn Dever (“Book Smart”) is fine as her best friend, and funny guy Jim Gaffigan is fine in a straight performance as one of the congregants.
But “Them…” never really delivers.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
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