Stigmata by John Sylva Rating: A-
http://members.aol.com/DeWyNGaLe/MoviePED.html
Rupert Wainwright brings us Stigmata, a high powered, clever thrill ride that stands as one of the most intriguing and spellbinding films I've ever seen. Stigmata's depthful plot revolves around Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette), a 23 year old, Atheist hipster, whom after receiving Rosary Beads that belonged to a now deceased priest from her mother in Brazil, is inflicted with the wounds of Christ, a.k.a. the stigmata. From there, Frankie's life goes downward, as the wounds become more violent and serious, and her body becomes possessed by the unknown. The Vatican sends Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) to investigate the matter, and when he sees the case he has on his hands, he is forced to question his own faith, as Frankie is going through something a little more serious than a flu bug.
Stigmata's cleverness is only somewhat derived from films such as "The Exoricst " or "The Omen", as Stigmata's alternate world is something so original and haunting, the film itself will stand as a representation of 90's horror films. The film shows slight signs of inspiration from "The Exoricst", mainly during the multiple episodes that Frankie is involved with, but there are enough twists to tell the two films apart.
By the time Stigmata reaches its 100 minute conclusion, you feel exhausted, from all the thinking your mind does while viewing this mesmerizing piece of art, yet at the same time you're uneasy, as you may question organized religion altogether, and wonder why so many people gather at church every Sunday. Stigmata's religious themes are so strong and convincing, and the message from the film is so inspirational, and true, some may question their own religious practices. Stigmata will have the Catholic Church complaining for years to come, as they are more or less made fools of here. Although some believe this element of Stigmata is offensive and mean spirited, I believe the writers of Stigmata are only expressing their opinions, and expressing them through film. Just because one doesn't agree with the message in Stigmata, shouldn't mean the film is a bad one. And for those of you who believe Stigmata is mean spirited, look at comedies such as Drop Dead Gorgeous, in which girls kill each other to win a beauty pageant, or South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, in which numerous ethnic groups are made fun of.
The performances aren't anywhere close to brilliant, as there is no stand out, or any performance that I could actually call great, but the entire cast gives decent performances. Patricia Arquette is terribly monotone in her role, delivers most of her dialogue with no feeling or emotion, and comes close to believability at times, but only convinces you half way. Luckily, everything else in the film, aside from the acting, is up to and above par, which takes some of the restraint off of her rather weak performance. Arquette's performance is the only deciding factor between an A film and an A- film, as for her character of Frankie to completely work, you need an actress capable of convincing an audience of her upset and troubles, which Arquette doesn't do.
Arquette's character reminds me most of Anette Bening's in last winter's clever thriller, In Dreams, in which a woman was stalked by a serial killer in her dreams, as both characters are clueless as to what is going on, both are accused of being psychotic, and both are given some over the top dialogue which they have to try extremely hard to say them, and have them come across as realistic. A veteran actress like Bening, who perfected her character in In Dreams, could work better in Frankie's role, as while Arquette only delivers two masterfully acted scenes, Bening masterfully acted an entire film.
The screenplay, written by Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage does have a few holes and flaws here and there, but the main religious themes are overwhelmingly powerful, and the holes are ones that don't particularly stand out after watching the film. The main problem with the script is the way it romantically links Frankie and Father Kiernan, as it tries to develop a relationship between two characters who have nothing in common, have a large age gap, and one is being possessed by unknown forces. The relationship is unconvincing, yet it does add some respect for Byrne's character throughout the film, as many characters would have ditched Frankie and let them handle their own problems.
The cinematography seems to be a touch of Heaven, with bright colors glistening, color and camera angles always perfect, and characters always glistening with a sparkly touch. The cinematographic style seems like something out of a music video, which many think is a negative thing, but watching the beautiful sites Stigmata brings for around two hours is just fine with me.
Stigmata stands as the eeriest film of the year to date, as it easily out-creeps August's The Sixth Sense, or July's The Blair Witch Project. The atmospheric and pulse pounding style contributes many scares, but the big scares occur while Frankie goes through her "episodes", where things get a little out of hand, to say the least. The direction by Rupert Wainwright is nothing short of brilliant, while he always keeps the interest level up, the soundtrack booming, and the scares coming. I commend Wainwright mainly for his portrayal of how the stigmata are imprinted on Frankie, using graphically realistic flash images of nails being driven into her hands, feet, and well, you get the picture.
The Bottom Line- Stigmata bursts with cleverness, chills, and strong, convincing religious themes, all combining to create a spellbinding, thought provoking, unforgettable motion picture.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews