STIGMATA R
Starring Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Portia DeRossi
Eric says: *** (3)
Combine "The Exorcist" with crap and you get "Stigmata". The Catholic Church has nothing to worry about because nothing about this is believable. The woman is possessed by a priest (oh, yeah, that happens a lot) who, as that priest, tries to seduce the scientist-turned-priest Gabriel Byrne. Why? Then,the message that is supposedly so dangerous IS already a part of Catholic teachings - that the faith is more important than the physical building that churches are. Jonathan Pryce is an evil priest for no particular reason who tries to absolve himself of his sins before he commits them, with Enrico Colantoni as his priest henchman with a questionable Italian accent. Also, scenes that reach for stylish end up as boring. Now I shall nitpick. Why doesn't Frankie get her landlord to fix the leaks? Why doesn't the hospital insist that she stay? If the true stigmata were on the wrists, not the hands, were all others afflicted with them just fibbing, or did God miss the mark by a few inches? My last complaint - why was this movie made? ....and I'm spent!
David says: ********** (4/6)
I wasn't quite as pissed off as Eric, but I agree that they went a little overboard at times. The worst was when the dead priest decided that he was a meany - this occurred pretty much out of the blue, and was not a good scene anyway. I did like the water drips motif as a nice artistic touch (though I'm not sure what meaning, if any, there was to this...) This would have been better if they had focused a little more on relationships (God can be inculded there), not revealed the message (reading the mind of God to create one will piss someone off, like this one did us), and dump the bad guys - differing views & politics would have been better than evil people..