- Annie is a recent college grad from New York who comes to Missoula to complete an internship working with recently discharged mental patients living together in a new apartment complex. Upon arrival she meets the Reverend Roger, the handsome, charismatic caretaker whom she eventually learns is not a reverend at all, but a fellow patient diagnosed with schizophrenia and a messianic complex. Despite his illness, Roger seems to have a greater grasp of the needs of his fellow patients than the overburdened state board that supposedly watches over them, and Annie finds herself taken in by his charm. After a local boy turns up missing, tensions begin to mount between the residents of the complex and their neighbors, and Annie, discovering cracks in Roger's calm facade begins to question his judgment, as well as her own.—NorthWest Film Center
- Ivy League Professor of Theology Roger Vogel finds himself alone on the night of his promotion to College Dean, when a young journalist arrives to interview him and inspires him instead to confess the painful truth of a dark past he has hidden for twenty years. In flashback Roger (played by Kurt Kroesche) recounts his first meeting with NYU Intern Annie Dresden (played by Amy Redford) who is the new caseworker for a halfway house in a small Montana town. At first Annie believes Roger is a local clergy working to create a safe place in the community for their brave little group of mentally ill patients. After developing feelings for Roger, she learns he is her patient. He suffers from a schizophrenic Messianic complex, reinforced by genuine, if unusual clairvoyance that he calls visions.
Neighbors have grown afraid of this quirky group of patients wandering in their midst. The most vocal and violent neighbor is Jack (played by Brian Wimmer), the abusive alcoholic stepfather of Rick -- a young, shy boy who befriended by those who Jack has termed: crazies. As Annie comes to believe in Rogers unusual gifts, she is torn between her role as his caseworker and her true feelings for him. When she begins believe his visions are real, her boss Ms. Amado (played by Mary Ellen Trainor) quickly puts an end to it. Every doctor in the system has diagnosed Roger as crazy, she insists. Ricks disappearance is the catalyst for the pent-up fear and hatred of this faction of the neighborhood, and Jack is convinced Roger is responsible. Desperate to find the boy, Roger awakens in Annie her visionary gifts and she uses them to find Rick, but it is too late. She arrives just as Jack shoots Roger in order to ...get the truth out of him. Twenty-five years later Rogers mental and physical wounds have healed, but he remains emotionally scarred; Annie died before his recovery was completed. He moved on and despite building this new life for himself, he has remained true to his feelings for Annie all of these years. With an unexpected revelation in the end, Roger learns that Annie died giving birth to Michelle; this young journalist is his daughter. His devotion to Annie for all of these years comes full circle.
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