I was ver taken with the first 45 minuts of The King, and then I started to wonder what the film's point was. Tension aside, and it is sustained to the very last scene, I couldn't quite figure the purpose behind the effort.
Afterward, I spoke with friends who'd seen the movie with me, and I feel that I got closer and closer to the heart of the film.
Can't be taken literally, can't be regarded as linear narrative where actions provide answers to many questions. I think you either let it happen to you or you balk at the implausible leaps in the plotted events.
Happy to see Bernal in an English-speaking role, adding weight to an already strong capacity to allow his looks to work against his type casting.

I didn't have any trouble getting the film's point. I found this film to be terrific. THE KING film skewers religion and evangelicals in particular. The point paralells how William Hurt changed his life and was granted "forgiveness" from God for his lifestyle and the fact that he abandoned his ex-wife (or love) and his son, Bernal. He has moved on, has a new family and is a successful minister.

Bernal comes back into Hurt's life, commits that atrocity and then is seeking the same kind of forgiveness from Hurt that God, as Hurt sees it, granted him.