The film I am about to discuss with you is meant to be a comedy.  This is underscored by the fact that is stars Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy as, respectively, Claude Banks and Rayford “Ray” Gibson.  However, what will follow will not sound like it was made for laughs.  I certainly did not chuckle at any point, but I am probably not the right audience for what its makers intended.  Still, this is also not the usual case of me struggling to describe that which is supposed to be comical.  It is the story of two unlikely friends being wrongly accused of murder and spending much of their lives together in prison.  One might be able to imagine some hilarity from such a general outline of the events.  For this historian and practicing Catholic, the set-up is made all the more poignant by the fact that their sentence is served in the American South, beginning in 1932.  I hope not to get too bogged down in the historical aspect of the story.  Just know that racism plays a part in how they end up in this predicament.  As for Catholicism, their relative isolation reminded me of the corporal act of mercy that is visiting the incarcerated.  This did not get many visitors, thus dampening my enjoyment, emotionally speaking.  Nonetheless, it has a happy ending, so I suppose that is something.

You would not know there is a hopeful conclusion to Life from its beginning.  Tangentially, that is quite a statement from a Catholic considering Faith is tied to our hope for eternity in Heaven based on our works in this life.  For now, the only ones working are those digging graves for elder inmates Claude and Ray, who have died in a fire.  One of Claude and Ray’s fellow prisoners that had been behind bars for even longer than them, Willie Long (Obba Babatundé), stays as two other offenders complete the burial.  In response to their curiosity, he tells them how Claude and Ray get to this point.  It starts in 1932 in New York City in Harlem.  Small time crook and hustler Ray manages to talk his way into a nightclub where soon-to-be bank teller Claude has brought his girlfriend, Daisy (Sanaa Lathan), for a date.  Claude goes to the restroom only to be accosted by a few men working for Spanky Johnson (Rick James), the gangster to whom Claude owes money.  They take all of Claude’s cash, leaving him without means of paying his tab.  After the thugs leave, Ray enters, claiming to know Claude from high school.  The latter does fall for the former’s con, but Ray does manage to pickpocket Claude’s wallet.  Before Ray can go much farther, he too is confronted by Spanky’s cronies.  It results in Claude and Ray being taken to Spanky, with Claude begging to be spared but being strung up by his feet for his trouble.  Ray, feeling bad for his mark being unnecessarily tortured, tells Spanky that Claude and the thief will bring a shipment of bootleg liquor up from Mississippi.  Claude is not happy about the arrangement, but grudgingly agrees to go with Ray out of a lack of choice.  Once they obtain their cargo, Ray cannot resist the chance of having some fun at a nearby bar.  Despite Claude insisting that they immediately return to New York, he resigns himself to following Ray to make sure they do not lose all their money.  Inevitably, this is exactly what takes place.  Claude gives his share to a woman claiming to need it for her family, while Ray gambles the rest away to a card cheat named Winston Hancock (Clarence Williams III).  Winston hastily exits but bumps into Sherriff Pike (Ned Vaughn).  When Winston does not show what Sherriff Pike believes to be the proper respect, and lands a cut on the law enforcement officer’s face, Winston is murdered.  The two that find Winston, of course, are Claude and Ray, and they are immediately arrested for the death.  Their “speedy” trial brings them a term behind bars for the rest of their natural lives without parole.  They are obviously innocent, and Claude blames Ray for their predicament.  As such, he ignores Ray’s notions of an escape plane.  Separately, Claude has been writing to Daisy to see if he can get his case overturned.  Instead, she ends up getting married to the lawyer hired to handle this legal matter, and the proceeding goes nowhere.  Only then does Claude agree to the break out with Ray.  It does not go far, and they are sent to the hole for a week upon their return to the prison camp.  Their next hope comes in the form of new arrival “Can’t-Get-Right” (Bokeem Woodbine).  They do not know his real name because he is a mute.  However, the one thing that he can do is hit a baseball, which attracts the attention of a professional baseball scout from the Negro Leagues, Stan Blocker (Noah Emmerich).  As the ones who purportedly “found” Can’t-Get-Right, Claude and Ray expect Stan to help get them out of jail along with the hitting prodigy.  When Stan returns, he has only been able to secure Can’t-Get-Right’s release.  It is Claude who is the most devastated by this most recent disappointment, and once more who is angry with Ray for being incarcerated.  They do not speak for several years.  Indeed, it is not until 1972, following Claude making a mad dash for a fresh pie and earning a special punishment, that they exchange any words.  Friends once more, they are transferred to special duty with the superintendent, Dexter Wilkins (Ned Beatty), who feels sorry for the length of their sentence.  Dexter’s sincerity is proved when the one who is supposed to replace him, the much older Sherriff Pike (R. Lee Ermey), is shot and killed by Ray while they are out hunting.  Dexter tells the police that it was an accident, and then tells Claude and Ray that he is going to put in the paper work for their pardons.  Unfortunately, he passes away before this occurs, and our pair remain in jail.  Finally, Claude comes up with the idea of faking their deaths so they can get out, which is accomplished by a fire in their section of the facility.  It is not pictured, but somehow they switch bodies.  The last we see of them is in Yankee Stadium enjoying a baseball game.

One of the best moments in Life from a Catholic perspective is when Dexter takes pity on Claude and Ray for the decades they have served at the Mississippi State Prison.  He has empathy for them despite not knowing the particulars of how they got to be in this situation.  This is brought to light during their hunting expedition when Sherriff Pike brings out the watch that had once belonged to Ray’s father.  Ray had lost it playing poker with Winston, and Sherriff Pike had taken it off Winston when he murdered the card shark.  Seeing the crooked former cop with the time piece enrages Ray, and he does an un-Christian act in getting vengeance.  I am also not too keen on Dexter covering for Ray shooting Sherriff Pike, even taking advantage of the fact that the investigating officer is a member of Dexter’s church.  Nonetheless, Dexter is right in that Claude and Ray, at least originally, did not deserve to be in prison.  Well, maybe Ray for his petty crimes back in New York, but Claude had everything going for him.  From a Christian perspective, those who do wrong are offered a second chance.  Catholics have the opportunity to do this without the need of physical imprisonment through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Sin, like prison, separates us from our loved ones.  This works spiritually speaking because sin takes us away from God, and without repentance, we run the risk of spending eternity in hell.  That means forever without love, either from those who were dear to us or, more importantly, God Himself.  This does not entirely work for Claude and Ray because they are innocent of the crime for which they were charged.  Yet, what we do see is the toll doing time has on their lives.  God wants us to be free with Him, if not in this life, then the next.  In a sense, Claude and Ray accomplish this with a kind of heaven, that being Yankee Stadium.

Of course, that description of the final moments of Life works better if you are a Yankees fan.  I have never been to their ballpark, so I cannot speak from experience.  As for the rest of the movie, it has some unflattering African American stereotypes, but nothing too over-the-top.  In all, it is a surprisingly thought provoking film, even if that is not what is intended.