Review of The Rite (2011) by Shiira — 06 Feb 2011

Father Lucas(Anthony Hopkins) is not one of those diva Roman Catholic priests who shows up only when the devil gets ready to take complete possession of its victim's soul. This church servant, differing from his American counterparts, makes house calls on lesser cases, routine visits to his afflicted parishioners, just like a French doctor in Michael Moore's "Sicko".

He's no Father Merrin(Max Von Sydow), a priest with a thing for dramatic lighting. His exorcism skills, as it turns out, are subpar. It's time for him to retire; he's too old to be the hero. Frankly put, the members of his flock are in trouble, because this man of the cloth is just not that powerful.

To its credit, "The Rite" deviates somewhat from the oft-used template of William Friedkin's "The Exorcist", just enough to make things mildly interesting. Although "The Rite" employs the all-too-familiar trope of the demon possessed victim being a young woman, she's not the central figure of the story, since her supernatural ordeal with nefarious forces is not an isolated case.

The film treats demonic possession as if it was a common malady, like the flu. Father Lucas has the aura of a country doctor, which is to say, he doesn't inspire awe. In addition to the pregnant girl that Lucas treats at his cat-infested abode, there's the battered boy covered with horse tracks he learns about from his extra-curricular rounds.

Unlike past "Exorcist" knockoffs such as "The Haunting of Emily Rose" and "The Last Exorcism", the curing of the bedeviled young woman is not the primary objective of the film.

In fact, the Italian girl doesn't get cured at all; she dies, in a surprising move, bringing to mind Alfred **** "Psycho", because her death thwarts audience expectations. The moviegoer expects Rosaria(Marta Gastini) to be there for the climax.

But like Janet Leigh in that Bates Motel shower, the impregnated teenager meets a violent untimely end. Her swelled belly then becomes a red herring. Since the girl never named a father, the film teases you with the notion that Satan sired that baby.

At the hospital, we're half-expecting her to give birth. But when the demon kills them both, we realize that the girl was an ancillary character all along. A "Rosemary's Baby" situation is averted.

She was knocked up the old-fashioned way: the devil wouldn't kill his own spawn. Father Lucas fails her. More often than not, the priest can be counted on to save the day, but here, the servant fails; it's the man of god who needs saving.

In "The Rite", it takes an atheist to do a clergyman's job. Michael Kovak(Colin O'Donoghue), the heretic from the states, needs a lot of convincing, maybe too much convincing(how many frogs will it take to convince you Mike?), before he finally acknowledges that the devil exists.

"The Exorcist" exists, too. Father Lucas makes reference to "spinning heads and pea soup" when the fraudulent seminary school graduate appears unimpressed after witnessing his first exorcism.

Foregoing the shock tactics of the 1973 chiller, "The Rite" presents itself as a respectable take on demonic possession. The film is notable for its lack of gore...and scares. Although Rosaria coughs up blood and nails, what "The Rite" needs is for the girl to regurgitate the blood and nails in the priest's face.

By not embracing its exploitation movie roots, the girl might as well have psychological problems, because a tempered flick about the devil, as "The Rite" proves time and time again, can make for a pretty dull experience.