The Bridge of San Luis Rey

12/8/2022

**_Thematically heavy costume drama (too weighty for the average viewer)_** In 1714, five people fall to their deaths in the Andes when an "indestructible" rope-bridge breaks and Franciscan monk Brother Juniper (Gabriel Byrne) becomes obsessed with the tragedy, collecting personal notes on all the victims and writing a book on his conclusions: Five people, all dying of the same cause at the same instant, cannot be mere coincidence in an understandable human universe. He's put on trial by the Inquisition (which was running Spain and Peru at the time) for humanly trying to second-guess an Act of God. Robert De Niro plays the prosecuting Archbishop. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (2004) is a costume drama taking place in Peru with a few scenes in Spain. Directed by Mary McGuckian, it's th