Lesli Linka Glatter’s “The Proposition” is a beautiful, technically perfect period film set during the 1930’s. Kenneth Branagh plays a Catholic priest who becomes entwined emotionally and romantically with Madeline Stowe, creating a love triangle with William Hurt, etc. etc. Although lovingly crafted, it is fatally flawed by a series of improbable coincidences and revelations. The general feeling is as if someone did a somber, classically acted rendition of the endings of several Scooby-Doo episodes and O. Henry stories.
