SHORT TAKE: “Religulous” (***)

I went into Bill Maher and Larry Charles’s “Religulous” expecting the usual close-minded schtick from Maher.  It seems the comedian is given to rational discourse on any topic except for religion where, indeed, it is the very notion of rationality that enjoys his full concentration.  He sticks his fingers in his ears and screams “La, la, la, la, I can’t hear you” and, for the most part, would prefer to relegate the subject to the extreme rather than see the gray area.

To some extent, that is exactly what we get with “Religulous.”  Maher shoots fish in a barrel all across the globe, prejudice toward no specific faith; he runs the gamut.  Christianity, Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Islam, all are accounted for.  But Maher does reach for a certain balance by kicking his journey off with a peek into his own religous background, which can go far toward explaining his detatchment from it all.  He was raised in a household that was 50 percent Jewish, 50 percent Catholic, and one that soon enough saw the error of organized religion.

Maher finds a handful of level-headed practitioners of faith, from a kooky but understandably fatalistic priest outside the Vatican to a thoughtful, doctorate-holding Catholic who heads up an observatory and has plenty to say about the value of science.  But where Maher does his thesis of rationality a disservice is in his preference to go out and shoot those fish in a barrel rather than spend some more time exploring the thoughtfulness of these individuals .  It is clear their screen time serves only to buttress his account in some small way, but he has no interest in the idea that they, too, have a level of faith that deserves respect.

It is, in many ways, the same frustration that played itself out on his program a few weeks ago, and here, it is prevalent throughout.

But “Religulous” is a fun movie.  There are plenty of insane believers out there and for the most part, they have claimed a considerable ownership of this country’s progress.  As Maher said when he earnestly introduced the film to a modest crowd in Century City on Wednesday, we need to take our country back from these people.  There is something to that, even if he carries the reverse fire-and-brimstone over the top as his film concludes.  The attempt was noble, even if somewhat in the vein of expectation.