The Rite

"When no proof of the devil becomes proof of the devil, things get complicated."

It’s weird to think of it this way, but The Exorcist is a profoundly religious film — a Christian one. The film posits Satanic possession as unquestionably real; the rest of Christian mythology logically has to be real, too. That neither The Exorcist nor its sequels (with the possible exception of Paul Schrader’s barely-released Dominion) ever truly grapple with this, or even acknowledge it, seems in hindsight vaguely dishonest.

Michael Hafstrom’s The Rite is inferior to The Exorcist in nearly every way, but at least it doesn’t back away from its implications. In this (and pretty much only this), it is similar to Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture, that greatest of all films about Christianity. The Rite is clumsy, ham-fisted, and often silly, but at least it asks the question: if in this world a girl can be possessed and tormented by a Biblical demon, what else must be true?

Indeed, this is one of the most aggressively and unapologetically Christian films I have ever seen. It begins with a skeptical deacon, Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue), sent to the Vatican to study to become a diocese exorcist. (It is actually true that every diocese must have one on staff.) Annoyingly firm in his belief that the allegedly possessed need a doctor or perhaps a psychiatrist rather than a priest, he is sent to study with a rogue exorcist named Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), who has been treating an allegedly possessed local teenager (Marta Gastini).

At first the movie seems to want to play coy along the lines of last year’s The Last Exorcism: Is this really demonic possession, or something more earthbound? There is a suggestion that the girl, who is pregnant, may have been raped by her father. Michael scoffs at Father Lucas’s seemingly circular suggestion that the lack of proof of bona fide demonic involvement may in fact be one of the devil’s tricks. At one point, he catches Father Lucas in some sleight-of-hand that all but proves he is a charlatan.

But then, before even the halfway point, The Rite tips its hand and throws in with the believers. Where it ends up is a place not merely religious, but downright dogmatic. Michael’s questioning instincts are condemned as devilry; the lack of tangible proof as trickery. The only truth — and the only way to overcome demons both real and emotional — is through Christ.

Which is interesting enough as a point of view for a major Hollywood film. One problem is that the protagonist’s journey to acceptance is less than compelling. At some point proof becomes so incontrovertible that believing doesn’t take much; show me what Michael sees during the course of The Rite and I’ll convert too. The movie tries hard to tie Michael’s ongoing crisis of faith to issues with his parents — there are lots of gauzy flashbacks — but it comes off as inconclusive noodling. The movie knew where it was going, but didn’t seem to know how to get there.

As a horror flick, The Rite aims for dignified restraint but winds up with a sort of timid impotence. There’s a lovely musical score by Alex Heffes (who also did great work on Kevin MacDonald’s State of Play a couple years ago) and eventually some classic Linda-Blair-ing by Anthony Hopkins. But Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (1408) doesn’t really seem interested in ratcheting up the tension. One gets the sense he’d bristle at The Rite being classified as horror. He should have embraced it. His loftier ambitions here are intriguing but unfulfilled.

-- Eugene Novikov

Released:	2011
Starring:	Marta Gastini, Colin O'Donogue, Alice Braga, Toby Jones, Rutger Hauer, Ciaran Hinds, Anthony Hopkins
Directed by:	Mikael Håfstrom
Rated:	PG-13