FEATURE

Stigmata

Let's get the bad out of the way first.  Old man, young woman - who else is getting tired of these kind of match-ups?  And another thing, when did the idea of entire scenes of a movie becoming a collage make it into the mainstream?  My five beefs with this movie is they felt it necessary to add a sexual tension between the two leads when there wasn't any need to, and secondly, there were way too many scenes of rapid cuts, flashing lights, blurring, and disorientation.  This was a great effect for when she was actually receiving the stigmata, but it was wasted at other moments.   The third beef I had with this movie was the whole pregnancy red herring at the beginning.  The fourth beef was the enigmatic 'deus ex machina' guy, who happened to live in America, close to Frankie Paige, and who knew enough to tie the whole story together.  And number five, is Frank Mancuso, Jr.  At least one of you out there knows Frank Mancuso, Jr. is a butcher to good cinema.  The average reader will clearly remember his first foray into horror: Friday the 13th.  I'm glad he has matured, but I can't help but think how much better this movie could have been without him.

Okay, so I started off with a pretty negative view of this movie in this review.  This is because I thoroughly loved this movie.  I turned to my friend in the theater when the movie was done and told her I love it when Hollywood makes movies just for me.  That's right, this movie was 'my' movie.  The ancient church investigating miracles through science, lost gospels, rumored intrigue between Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits, and faith all come together to create a masterpiece that resets the benchmark first established by The Exorcist when making a movie concerning the inner workings of the Catholic Church.

Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is the basic non-believer who has the bloody wounds of Christ suddenly thrust upon her.  Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is sent to investigate this possible stigmatic.  As an investigator of miracles, Fr. Kiernan's first duty is to debunk them.  Nothing harms the Catholic Church more than false miracles.  In Frankie Paige, Father Kiernan finds an enigma.   She is suffering from the wounds of Christ, yet she wasn't an active believer in Christ, something that had never been recorded before.

In the process of investigating the miracle, Fr. Kiernan stops worrying about defusing the reports of the stigmata, and begins worrying about what might happen to Frankie.  As the wounds progress, it looked like she might suffer the death of Christ.  This leads the characters head on into a conspiracy within the Vatican to maintain the secrecy of certain texts regarding the life of Christ.

The movie claims to be scary, but it really isn't a fright fest.  It is disturbing, though.  There are some moments that might make a viewer jump.   No extraordinary efforts are taken to make the audience scream, shout, jump, are get grossed out.  Nothing grotesque, except blood.

The quality of the movie comes from how it juxtaposes images and ideas:   communion and blood tests;  Christ nailed to the cross and the piercings of urban youth; rain and the tears of angels; closeness to Christ and closeness to Sin; and the inevitable science and faith.  This movie will be offensive to ardent Catholics as it starts off as the best recruiting film ever for priests (hey, join the Catholic Church and join the oldest, longest lived organization ever, see the world, and do cool stuff), it turns into the best Protestant propaganda film ever (the Catholic Church stands in the way of man and his God).  But any person who gets religious enlightenment through a two hour movie really needs to examine their faith more closely.  No movie can be a manifesto for religious belief, something that is ultimately a very personal experience.