Stigmata

Rating:
Summary: your stigmata
Review: This particular movie is one of the more closer modern day films of the church secrets. You don't have to like this movie, but it does approach one of the biggest secret of the church: "What an actual church is". I personally like this movie, it is an intellectual film at heart. I agree that this shouldn't be compared to The Exorcist. That original movie has I think more rawness to it, this movie is slick, stylistic, and extremely methodical. I thought this to have the most disturbing imagery, next to the original hellrasier.

Rating:
Summary: Brings Jesus Christ closer to any human being
Review: This movie had a message that was so appealing to me it colored my perception of the film with favorable colors in spite of its "horror movie" parts. Maybe I am wrong, but I felt the movie wanted to say that "god is everywhere" and that human beings do not need someone to stand between them and god. My feelings about religion were always such that religion is supposed to bring happiness, comfort and support and not engage in war, conflicts and guilt or the acquisition of power.
Another reason for liking this movie was Patricia Arquett. She is so sweet, candid and fresh that her "purity" seems to come out of the screen. You do believe she was somehow "chosen" even if the necklace reached her hands by coincidence.
As for my criticism. This movie can be described as an horror/thriller. Frankie Page, a hairdresser is starting to hallucinate and have outbursts of acute pains, causing severe wounds in her body. These turn out to be very typical of a situation called Stigmata where strong believers in Christianity totally identify with the suffering of Jesus Christ.
An investigator, sent by the church to check on this case, is drawn to Frankie and keeps on inquiring her case in spite of the fact that she is no believer, a basic criteria for stigmata. As typical to thrillers, our investigator is alone without any help from outside sources. As usual the whole (Christian) world is against him. As usual our investigator arrives in the last moment to save the day. However, the movie, and especially its last part is filled with "horror"/unnatural parts which were much too much for my taste. I liked the first part of the movie when we did not know yet what is true and what isn't and I was waiting for a logical explanation for everything we saw. I like to be on the thin line between reality and the unnatural, but this film moves towards the unreal in a very firm way. I could accept some "miracles", especially since the movie explains in such a beautiful way how people "need" the miracles and how such signs of god become the cornerstone of their belief, yet it was a little too much
I would like to add that the movie succeeded in presenting Jesus suffering in a way that makes him, so I felt, closer to any human being (this coming from a Jew) in the sense that one cannot remain indifferent to his suffering after "feeling" them together with Frankie. I therefore felt that in spite of the presentation of the "church" in dark colors, the movie did not do any harm to the Christian faith.


Rating:
Summary: This movie should NOT be compared to the Exorcist.
Review: I'm not a religious person, but when I saw this movie in the library I was curious and decided to give the movie a look. Because I'm not catholic, there were certain aspects of the movie I did not understand, but I still thought the movie was interesting. For some people the subject matter may be a bit much, especially during some of the more violent scenes. This film should have been in the thriller genre in my opinion. This is not a horror film, but a supernatural thriller. The film really delves into religion, and pulls out things we never knew about God. The movie is visually stunning. Slow motion effects of blood and water drips splashing spookily, statues crying and brilliant makeup and special effects. The film has a message, and if you don't pay attention, you may not truly understand what that message is. The film is about a young woman Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette), an atheist living in Pittsburgh, who is afflicted with the stigmata. Which is unusual being that Stigmata's usually only occur in people who are devout. Frankie starts going through this after receiving a gift from her mother. Her mother on vacation in Brazil, sends her a rosary, that belongs to the recently deceased Father Alameida.

The Vatican sends in Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) to investigate. Kiernan is not only a priest, but a scientist; his job is to travel the world and document alleged miracles or supernatural occurrences with overtones that may have some bearing on the Universal Church.

Watching Frankie receive the Christ like wounds in her feet and hands is very intense. When you see what is happening to Frankie as it happened to God while he was on the cross, you feel like you can actually hear the whip lashing, or feeling the nails going into your wrists. That aspect of the film is pretty amazing to me. I've seen the Exorcist, and to me there is no comparison between the two movies. Frankie is not demonically possessed. She is possessed by the spirit of Father Alameida. Nia Long(The Best Man, Fresh Prince of Bell air) and Portia DeRossi(Ally McBeal, Arrested Development) have small roles in this movie.

If you are into supernatural thrillers, are open minded, and like movies that are thought provoking, then this is an interesting movie to watch.