In the film, when a young student of the priesthood (Colin O'Donoghue, looking like a poor man's Jake Gyllenhaal) attempts to cave to a crisis of faith and abandon his studies, he is instead talked into relocating to the Vatican in Rome to become one of many new and much-needed exorcists. It is explained that demonic possession has become more rampant than ever, and it doesn't take the film long to demonstrate this fact.
The student is hooked up with Anthony Hopkins, portraying an old-pro exorcist who lives in the country, away from the Catholic complex - and is therefore able to infuse the heretofore-morose film with a degree of much-needed levity at this point. It's Hopkins doing the Hopkins thing, working a part he could play in his sleep (at least until Act III), but that's okay. Before too long, this character's integrity is called into question - is he charlatan, exorcist, or both? Or neither? Beyond this point, let's just say "The Rite" takes a sharp left turn, but it all ends up where we thought we were headed in the first place. Man against demon: Critical Mass.
Swedish-born director Mikael Håfström takes what here in the states may be considered a "foreign" approach to the material, favoring atmosphere and environmental minutia (cutaways of statues, etc.) over traditional narrative reveals. Not that this film could be considered "experimental" or "art house" necessarily - the story is very much there, just not at center stage. Some may chalk this up to mysteriousness or deliberate ambiance, although "unfocused" is the word they may actually be looking for.
One cannot complain, however, about the quality of the supporting cast. Character actor stalwarts Toby Jones and Rutger Hauer deliever the goods despite what little they are given. Likewise, leading lady Alice Braga manages to make her plot-device character somehow ring true. Not that that's enough to save the conflicted soul of this movie that claims to have been "inspired by true events". But honestly - how many Hollywood exorcism movies don't make that claim?
For decades now, the movies haven't exactly been kind to the Catholic Church, often portraying the institution as corrupt, those in charge as sick. (And considering the very public scandals the church has weathered in the past decade, one can hardly call these charges completely unwarranted.) At best, the cavernous cathedrals and ritualistic stoicism tend to be presented as archaic and other; unwanted relics of an old world practice that lingers yet. Herein lie the clichés of religious horror that I alluded to earlier. "The Rite" presents cinema's umpteenth dehumanizing, hazy cathedral, painstakingly lit to appear flat and lifeless, populated by pious robed holy men who drift around, silently superior except when spouting some arcane mumbo-jumbo.
Ah, but here is where the message of the visual aesthetic (which is admirably executed, if also yawningly familiar) clashes with the screenplay. Although the film works to serve up a few directional red herrings, there is never any doubt that this will ultimately be a story of a young priest reclaiming his faith. On paper, apart from all the unnecessary overcooked horror-genre dressing, "The Rite" is all about embracing the greater truths at the heart of the Catholic Church, arcane rituals and all, in the interest of a more-real-than-real struggle of good versus evil on a plane we cannot logically comprehend. Indeed, throughout the film, the young protagonist asks reasonable, pointed questions intended to penetrate the veneer of perceived artificial religiosity. In another film, this sort of crack-shot humanist questioning would expose the piety of it all, particularly when the answers he gets boil down to "it's a matter of faith". But faith is precisely what "The Rite" is interested in - even if that interest seems to waver throughout.
Yes, "The Rite" has some interesting (and some would say, important) spiritual observations to make as it rejects humanism for Believing Faith (with capitals B and F), making the point that one will surely die without it. Unfortunately, the delivery of this message is a stale and scatter-shot sermon that is part of a stodgy (if well-meaning) church service, running long in (you guessed it) a pointlessly creepy cathedral.
- Jim Tudor