At Theaters

Mother brings her son a gift

Pieta

***1/2 Wrenching Oedipal tragedy not for the casual viewer —MM

Pieta is one of the most challenging films I've seen in the past year. It is not for the faint of heart, and it's not likely to reward a casual viewer. It isn't graphic, but it is horrible, in many ways, and in many scenes. Superficially, one might call it "offensive," but only if you ignore the soup of negative introspective emotions -- shame, regret, grief -- that the film swims in.