‘Machine Gun Preacher’

Let’s look at that rating for “Machine Gun Preacher”: an R, for “violent content including disturbing images, language, some drug use and a scene of sexuality.”

That’s an unusual litany for an inspirational film with a religious context. Granted, the R rating allows the movie to delve into harsh subjects, including atrocities in southern Sudan, with full-on urgency. But it does make me wonder who the audience is supposed to be, a question the film never quite solves.

“Machine Gun Preacher” is based on a real character, one Sam Childers, whose life is somewhat fictionalized for storytelling purposes. He’s played by Gerard Butler, an actor who makes a fair bid for awards notice with this brawny performance.

We meet Childers as a bum; he’s sprung from jail and has a dismal record as a human being. After hitting rock bottom, his born-again wife (Michelle Monaghan) leads him into the church, which he takes on with the fervor of the addict he was. (His sermons gain added force from the fact that he resembles Wolverine from the “X-Men” series.)

Eventually, this leads him to not only found his own parish but also an orphanage in Africa. This calling leads to questions about his commitment to his family as well as his rule-breaking approach to protecting the African kids under his care, an approach that includes vigilante tactics against the local warlords.

Give the movie credit for not presenting Childers as a rah-rah hero in all this. His personal demons are rarely far from the surface, even if we strongly suspect that while his methods may be questionable, he’s doing the right thing.

Director Marc Forster, whose credits range from “Monster’s Ball” to “Quantum of Solace,” is far too conflicted a filmmaker to let us get caught up in the heroics of Childers’ life, and perhaps that’s the right take on the material. But it makes the movie oddly inert, even as it brings up issues about the horrible situation in Sudan and the particular plight of children there.

Gerard Butler dominates the film, although Madeline Carroll is appealing as his daughter and Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”) lends his vaguely disturbing presence as a Childers family friend who acts as a surrogate father during Sam’s long absences. Nice gesture, although having Michael Shannon tell you bedtime stories would probably make for some uneasy dreams.

The film is unabashedly an Oscar vehicle for Butler, who connects solidly. Whether fighting in “300” or crooning in “Phantom of the Opera,” Butler always gave you the sense of potential untapped, and here he gets to cut loose with a full-bodied, free-swinging performance. Now, please cast him in something really terrific.

“Machine Gun Preacher” (2 stars)

Gerard Butler stars as a real-life (if fictionalized) character, Sam Childers, a reformed addict who became a pastor and founded an orphanage in a war-torn part of Africa. The character’s flaws are fully examined in the movie, which remains uncomfortably poised between an inspirational religious drama and an R-rated political action picture. Butler gives a full-bodied performance.

Rated: R for violence, language, subject matter.

Showing: Meridian.