After seeing a couple of serious dramatic movies, I decided that Labor Day Weekend would be a good time to catch up on the summer’s biggest hit, “Guardians of the Galaxy.” It’s a comic book adventure movie that has received good reviews and word of mouth.

I can understand the appeal of “Guardians.” Many “comic book” movies are long and dark (e.g. the recent Batman movies). “Guardians of the Galaxy” is relatively short at only two hours and does not take itself seriously. In the movie, our hero, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), was mysteriously taken from his mother’s death bed on Earth in 1988 as a boy. He travels to a far away galaxy where he becomes an adventurer.
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In the opening scene of this new movie, a priest named Fr. James enters the confessional of his parish church in a small Irish town. A man enters the confessional and tells Fr. James that he intends to kill him. The man states that he was abused by a priest as a boy. The priest has since died. The penitent goes on to say that he wants to kill Fr. James precisely because he is a good priest. In his mind, there would be no point in killing a priest who was guilty. The penitent tells Fr. James that he will give him a week in order to get his affairs in order. Then he leaves the confessional without revealing his identity to Fr. James.

During the week, Fiona, Fr. James’ adult daughter, comes to visit. We find out that Fr. James is a widower who entered the priesthood later in life. His daughter is dealing with her own mental health issues, and Fr. James wants to spend time with her. Despite her own problems, Fr. James is clearly happy to have his daughter with him.
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