‘Father Joe’ review: Kiefer Sutherland takes holy orders in Luc Besson’s violent action romp

Dir: Barthélémy Grossmann. France. 2026. 107mins 

Endearingly ludicrous for much of its runtime, Father Joe stars Kiefer Sutherland as the titular priest whose fervent devotion to God does not preclude him from killing scores of people. This hyper-violent action-thriller finds a humble man of the cloth waging war on the New York criminal underworld, led by Al Pacino’s hammy mob boss. Director Barthélémy Grossmann and writer/producer Luc Besson play the film’s unapologetic excesses straight, but even Sutherland’s commanding performance cannot fully enliven Father Joe’s trashy silliness. 

Even Sutherland’s commanding performance cannot fully enliven Father Joe’s trashy silliness. 

Screening in Venice out of competition, the picture has some marquee value thanks to its veteran stars, and those especially fond of Besson’s other outlandish New York shoot-‘em-up, 1994’s Leon: The Professional, may enjoy Father Joe’s cheeky swagger. Theatrical potential appears modest, however – streaming might may prove a better fit for this derivative hoot. 

Set in 1990s in New York’s Little Italy, the film follows Father Joe (Sutherland), a former US Special Forces soldier who served in Vietnam, fell in love with a local beauty and started a family. But that was a long time ago, and now he preaches God’s message of kindness and love. In his downtime, though, Joe goes after drug dealers, wielding his military prowess to blow up drug labs and gun down as many bad guys as possible. Soon, he attracts the attention of Giuseppe (Pacino), a ruthless gangster displeased that Joe’s vigilantism is curtailing his lucrative narcotics operation. 

Decked out in a long black coat and a cappello romano, Father Joe sports the look of a grizzled antihero from a hip graphic novel. He wants to protect New York’s children from the scourge of drugs – his motivation will eventually be explained through a tortuously tragic backstory – and he is more than willing to unleash violence to achieve his goals. But Joe also utilises other ingenious tactics, injecting drug dealers with a deadly poison so that they have to visit his church every Sunday to hear his sermon and receive the life-saving antidote. 

Sutherland capably sells this priest’s inherent contradictions, imbuing Joe with serenity and grace while extolling God’s belief in humanity’s goodness – even in the midst of offing criminals with the precision of a superhero or John Wick. Because the veteran actor never winks, Joe’s moral decency feels grounded, stemming from the same place as his murderous vengeance. The result is an engaging, albeit far-fetched, character construction: Joe knows he will go to Hell for his copious killing, but has faith that his actions are in service of a greater societal good.

Grossmann, who previously directed the 2022 horror-thriller Arthur, malediction (also written by Besson), struggles when focusing on the rest of the ensemble. Pacino brings the same predictable bellowing fury and growly menace he has lent to myriad recent performances, while Ever Anderson lacks the poise of her more experienced co-stars as Felicity, a young woman Joe encounters after she overdoses. Felicity manages to convince Joe to let her join his crack team of do-gooders, which includes several of his fellow lethal clergymen, but Anderson adds little despite her character’s increasing importance to the plot. 

As a scenarist, Besson has often imbued his stories with a gleeful unreality, shaping his films as pastiches of the genres he adores. Like Leon, Father Joe seems to take place in a New York that only exists in the movies – one filled with tough-talking crooks and a stoic hero out to save a defenceless younger woman. There’s pleasure in Besson’s slick, soulless formula, and Father Joe certainly features plenty of bloody action sequences, moving between martial arts mayhem and gratuitous gunplay. Editor Lucas ‘Kub’ Fabiani and composer Matteo Locasciulli help ensure that every elevator fistfight and operatic church shootout ripples with epic urgency, even if these set pieces are familiar from many films. 

The production values are impressive for a film with a presumably tight budget, although eventually the entertaining worldbuilding gives way to bland discussions about regret and the existence of a higher power. Grossmann’s attempts to add emotional depth by suggesting that Joe and Giuseppe are mirror images of one another – each man selling salvation in troubled times – are awkwardly handled, as is Joe’s grief over his lost family. 

Ultimately, Father Joe works best when embracing its junky B-movie aesthetic. It is telling that, on two separate occasions, our protagonist confidently strides away from a massive explosion in slow motion, which is an indication of Father Joe’s agreeable shamelessness , as well as acknowledging the film’s limited originality.