Jack Lemmon stars in Mass Appeal as a popular Los Angeles parish priest, who has retained the good will of his parishioners by cracking jokes and never taking a stand on crucial matters. Enter young seminarian Zeljko Ivanek, whose rebellious reputation threatens to earn him an expulsion. Lemmon is expected to bring Ivanek around to the Church's "party line," but the younger man resists the older man's advice--quite loudly at times. The audience is fully aware that, by film's end, Ivanek will have converted Lemmon instead of the other way around, but the sheer joy of watching two superb actors at work transcends the story's predictability. Mass Appeal was based on a play by Bill C. Davis, and produced by none other than the widow of McDonalds mogul Ray Kroc.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide