God, sex, death, drugs, and insanity are all interwoven into this film about the evils of money, and how far people are prepared to go to get it.

Leon is a 30-year-old Long Island paperboy, or "circulation manager'', who accidentally gets a suicide note from one of his customers, leading him and his estranged brothers on a wild goose chase for buried treasure.

The film is certainly a family affair, having been written, directed, edited, and starring Roger Majkowski, and featuring his brother Thomas, and a cast of friends.

A central theme in the movie is God, and how he influences people to stumble about in their twisted realities.

God seems to delight in throwing together situations that people living a life less ordinary will hopefully never need be subjected to, and he is relegated to the role of silent psychotherapist, and blamed for everything that goes wrong.

The message that is perhaps meant to be drawn from this film is that money is not the answer to our problems, or that crack cocaine is a good medicine for possession by the Devil, or that the God and the Devil have joined forces and are co-conspiring to create situations that lead inevitably to greed and tragedy.

The characters in this movie would be ideal guests for one of Jerry Springer's more twisted tales of insanity in suburban American.

We are treated to sick and twisted relationships and how the characters entertain their whims and fetishes, which are made all the more possible by having money to throw at sick acts of perversion and human degradation.

Much like the film, the characters are black and white. They do not seem to have the depth of truly psychotic Americans; rather they are everyday Americans acting out what they imagine the lives of psychotics to be.

And much like guests on Springer, only those who want to believe the characters are real will be convinced by the performances.

As their problems start to grow, the money is blamed for all of the character's woes, and we are led to believe that despite their twisted ideals the moral is that money is not the key to happiness.

But when we think that things are about to return to "normal'' and the characters are set to return to the depressing freakishness of their everyday lives, we are left in no doubt that Springer rules the day.

The message we are left with is: "Being a drug addict is a fine choice, as long as that's all you want in life.'' Comic, this film is not.

A black comedy possibly, but the film appears to be more of a worrying indication of the kind of entertainment that is growing in acceptability in mainstream entertainment.

Passing Stones is at the Little Theatre tonight at 9 p.m. and at the Liberty Theatre on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

BIFF MOVIES MPC