Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 18, 2011
The Critic's Corner
“The Rite”
David Laprad
Friedrich Nietzsche once said God was dead. While many people would disagree with that postulate, it’s unlikely anyone viewing “The Rite” would take issue with the notion that God’s nemesis, the Devil, is at least limping along when it comes to movies. If this new demonic possession picture is the best the muse behind “The Exorcist” and “Rosemary’s Baby” can come up with, then he’s lost his hoof-hold on the horror genre.
“The Rite” centers on Michael Kovak, a priest-in-training who has doubts. When a friend chides him in an early scene for deciding to attend seminary, Kovak says the men in his family have two choices: become a mortician, like his dad, or enter the priesthood. Since he has no intention of following in his father’s footsteps, seminary it is. Besides, he reasons, it’s a free education.
As Kovak approaches graduation, however, his doubts get the better of him and he tells his headmaster he won’t be entering the ministry due to a lack of faith. In response, the man threatens to turn his free education into a huge student loan and then sends him to an exorcism class in Rome. His thinking seems to be that if God won’t give Kovak faith, he’ll let Satan do the honors.
Writer Michael Petroni, working from a book by Matt Baglio, develops a strong back-story for Kovak. His mother died when he was young, and as he enters adulthood, his doubts are more about his general lack of direction than any misgivings he might have about the existence of God. So it’s no surprise when his time in Rome does little to cement his faith. Seeing this, the teacher of the class sends him to train under Father Lucas Trevant, a practicing exorcist.
Trevant shrugs at Kovak’s disbelief and takes him on a couple of house calls. At one, a young woman speaks in tongues, turns into a human pretzel and spits up iron nails; at another, a terrified mother reveals massive teeth marks on her son’s torso. Trevant handles each situation differently, doing his best Max von Sydow impression as he tries to cast the demon out of the girl, but using sleight of hand to seemingly pull the Devil, in the form of a tiny frog, out of the boy.
Something happens during the exorcism of the girl that gives Kovak pause, but when he figures out what Trevant did with the boy, he all but gives in to his atheistic impulses.
At this point, I was still interested. Kovak’s journey raises questions about whether or not the girl is truly possessed or merely suffering from a mental disorder. And as played by the great Sir Anthony Hopkins, Trevant has a quirky, but appealing, personality. Also, director Mikael Hafstrom keeps the early exorcism scenes grounded in reality.
Then the movie goes to hell. Hafstrom takes the restrained and thoughtful tone of the first half of the picture, throws it out the proverbial window and replaces it with every conceivable demonic possession movie cliché except spinning heads and pea soup. Suddenly, Kovak hears creepy sounds everywhere he goes, and he encounters a mule with red eyes in the courtyard of the seminary where he’s staying. And, as the trailers reveal, the demon that had resided in the girl sets up housekeeping in Trevant, putting the pieces into place for a showdown between it and Kovak.
As Trevant sits tied to a chair, growling in an otherworldly voice, “The Rite” loses all credibility. Hafstrom allowed Hopkins to improvise many of his lines, and the results aren’t pretty. Call me jaded, but when a demon calls a priest “kissy lips,” it takes me out of the moment. To his credit, Hopkins takes a risk and throws himself into the final scenes with abandon, but he misses the mark. The overblown sound effects are also out of place.
My biggest beef with “The Rite,” however, is its backward theology. I assumed the demon was simply doing what comes naturally, but late in the movie, Petroni and Hafstrom concoct a history between Kovak and the evil spirit. They also give the demon a motivation of sorts, but it’s illogical. Why would an evil spirit give a priest the faith he needs to cast it out? In a word, the ending is dumb.
“The Rite” begins with the words “based on a book “ and “inspired by real events.” It even ends with a placard of what the real Father Kovak is doing today. I’d love to find out what he thinks possessed the creators the movie as they turned his quest for faith into a silly Hollywood spectacle.
Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material, violence, frightening images and language, including sexual references. Two stars out of four.
Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.
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