Commandments

Is there a God? If so, why does God allow evil and suffering? These aren't questions one associates with Hollywood filmmakers, so it's no surprise that Commandments tries to reduce the meaning of life to a subpar TV pilot. A whiny Aidan Quinn plays Seth Warner, a man besieged by fate. His wife disappears while swimming at the beach, his house is leveled by a tornado, he loses his job, and a bolt of lightning hits him and his dog while he stands on a ledge, demanding that the deity explain why He (or She) is picking on him.

Bereft, Seth and his dog are taken in by Rachel (Courteney Cox), his late wife's comely sister. Unfortunately, she's married to Harry (Anthony LaPaglia), the amoral, cynical opposite of Seth's tortured, annoying idealist. So Seth decides to break all 10 Commandments till God gives him an answer to his carping cosmological inquiry. His crimes are pretty piddling -- you know the movie is just biding time till it gets to Thou Shalt Not Kill and Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery. In the process it breaks number three: Thou Shalt Not Take the Lord's Name in Vain. Opens Friday at the Starcase, Tri-Boro and Woonsocket cinemas.

-- Peter Keough