(2006) with Chris Hansen
7:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: Christopher J. Hansen
Writers: Christopher J. Hansen and D.M. Lovic
Cinematographer: Damon Crump
Cast: Anne Dennis, Ellen Dolan, Joseph Frost, Heather Henry, Dustin Olson
Running Time: 95 min

Chris Hansen’s “unlikely documentary”Â? follows Brian (Dustin Olson), a balding, unemployed, thirty-something nebbish who believes that he is a messiah. Not the messiah, Brian persistently reminds the unseen documentary filmmaker (played by the director), but a regionally-selected messiah for a “100-mile radius.”

Brian’s delusions of grandeur are supported by his worshipful brother Aaron and concerned sister Miriam, who recognizes Brian’s problems but seeks to prevent him from harming himself. The story focuses on a brief interlude in Brian’s career as he arranges to announce himself and his “higher purpose”, which has something to do with dental hygiene and helping people, at his town’s civic center.

The film follows Brian as he seeks to raise money to rent the civic center and to pay for t-shirts with a humorously garbled message designed to promote his appearance. Brian’s attempts at fundraising include a fee-for-baptism service at a nearby beach and door-to-door spirit cleansings. Brian and his two “disciples” find themselves in the home of someone who needs a messiah’s services to drive out unwanted — and apparently invisible — guests, producing a remarkable scene in which Brian is forced to confront another soul with similar delusions.

At times hilarious and other times touching, this mockumentary follows a man who so wants to be special that he’s willing to put everything else in his life on hold in order to be so. This particular “Life of Brian” is a cheery and thoughtful mockumentary for the true believer, one who is ready to receive the good word that religious faith can be, well, as funny as hell.