The Bible is clearly much on the mind of filmmaker Michael Landon Jr., but the most immediate inspiration for this historical drama about a cultish community of 19th-century Welsh immigrants clinging to a pseudo-Christian superstition they should have left behind in the old country is a novel of the same name by Francine Rivers.

After watching the black-hooded Sin Eater supposedly cleanse her grandmother's soul in a gravesite ritual, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes (Liberato) decides to track down the mysterious man and demand redemption for her role in a family tragedy — a quest that brings her perilously close to the truth about the shady selection of the Sin Eater a generation earlier and the original sin of the settlers of the “Cove.” But will the truth set Cadi — and her close-knit community — free?

A strong story is hindered here by on-the-nose dialogue and melodramatic delivery that makes it seem more like a pulpit-pounding sermon than a slyly subtle parable. As cinematic sins go, though, there are none committed here that couldn't ultimately be forgiven. Distributor: Bigger Picture
Cast: Liana Liberato, Peter Wingfield, Soren Fulton, Henry Thomas and Louise Fletcher
Director: Michael Landon Jr.
Screenwriters: Brian Bird and Michael Landon Jr.
Producers: Robert Gros, Brian Bird and Michael Landon Jr.
Genre: Historical drama
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements and some sequences of violence
Running time: 142 min.
Release date: February 9, 2007