David O'ConnellThe Rite
March 14th 2011 01:49
It’s the ultimate test of faith for priest-in-training Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue): will a confrontation with a human possessed by a demon prove the catalyst for a re-invigoration of his own faith in God? For some time, Kovak’s religious convictions, ingrained by family tradition, have been on the wane. Assisting his father (Rutger Hauer) in the family business – a mortuary - isn’t proving to be as life-affirming as he’d hoped, yet tradition compels him to choose one path or the other.
So meekly he surrenders to the call of the church, undergoing extensive training before, close to taking his final vows, he decides to pull the pin. Thanks to the insistent whispers of his superior, Father (Toby Jones) and having to bear witness to a horrific traffic accident, in which he is called upon to administer final blessings to a dying woman, convince him to have a final fling with the Church. So to Italy he absconds in search of the weakening echo of the divine pulse that mired his childhood in the suffocations of an irrefutable dogma.
Kovak’s inner doubts are resurrected and examined further once he’s introduced to Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins), a luminary of the Church who has long specialised in the ancient ritual of exorcism, which despite reports to the contrary, is an everpresent concern for its vulnerable, faithful flock. A series of curious incidents keep him digging deeper with the help of a curious journalist (Alice Braga), before all hell, literally, breaks loose, putting Kovak into direct confrontation with an unimaginably malignant force.
In the same way that The Wolfman eroded Hopkins reputation for a judicious choice of roles, Mikael Hafstrom’s The Rite (2011) becomes bloated with obvious symbolism and a need to expunge any meaningful progress with showstopping scares via a battery of CGI artists. The final 30 minutes might have worked better as a more ferocious parody but for the dour humourless of its content.
Though physically he appears a perfect specimen for the role, Irish actor O’Donoghue’s general inertness both humanises and stigmatises the film’s attempt at a credible balance of the supernatural and naturalistic. Against the anguish Lucas puts into his seemingly rudimentary exorcism attempts, Kovak’s lack of demonstrative reaction cynically evokes the objective observer’s perspective.
O'Donoghue's Black Irish looks are perfect for a flawed role.
When madness takes it firmest grasp, in the form of full blown possession, O’Donoghue’s understated approach feels feeble, inadequate and a trifle absurd. At some point he needed to grab hold of Hopkins’ coat-tails in essaying the absurdity to illustrate the demonic possession; instead his frustrating passivity feeds an impression that can only ever resolve itself as a pale imitation of William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973).
A fundamental failing rests in resurrecting the absurdity of exorcism as a relevant concept in the modern world. Admittedly the gothic trappings evoked by the setting of old world Italy with its creepy architecture and darkened enclosures help alleviate this, but it’s still a stretch to arrest the hardened scepticism of an increasingly faithless world.
The Rite, with content “suggested by” real events (as tenuous as any link to reality as you’ll ever see) is overly dour and tainted by mediocrity. Though it’s far from unwatchable, there’s little to invite a second viewing. It falls well short of Hafstrom’s only decent American film to date, 1408 (2007), which at least had the benefit of a John Cusack tour-de-force to elevate it.
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