The Rite (2011)

The Faith, Demon and Exorcism

Stars   :  Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Alice Braga
Score  :  7.0 / 10

 

A teenager, Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) lived with his father, Istvan Kovak (Rutger Hauer). His mother was dead. Michael helped his father work, bathing the corpse. They had not good economic life, so Michael could not go to college after high school. Since Michael was child, his mother had a premonition that Michael would be a priest. Michael did not want to work bathing the corpse forever, he filed a registration to seminary school and was accepted. Michael chose seminary because of its low cost. Michael was very smart and gets a satisfactory score in exam. When approaching graduation, Michael did not feel the call of God in him. Michael submitted his resignation to seminary.

One of his teachers, Father Matthew (Toby Jones) felt that Michael had a good potential to be a priest. Father Matthew more convinced after saw Michael's ability when provided services as priest to a woman who would die because of traffic accident.

At that time, the Vatican was getting a lot of possessed incident report. But the Vatican did not have enough priests who were able to perform an exorcism. Not all the priests were interested in exorcism. Father Matthew gave a suggestion to Michael to take exorcism classes in Rome, Italy for two months. If Michael was not suitable, Michael could leave seminary. Michael accepted it and went to Rome. Father Matthew entrusted Michael to his friend, Father Xavier (Ciaran Hinds), a teacher in exorcism class.

Michael Kovak

Michael felt less suitable in exorcism class because he did not believe the existence of demons and considered that exorcism is something unreasonable. Michael also argued to Father Xavier for his opinion. Father Xavier finally asked Michael to meet Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins), who have handled many cases of possession. Father Xavier hoped that Michael could learn a lot of things from Father Lucas and would change his mind about demons and exorcism.

Michael went to Father Lucas home

In Father Lucas home, Michael watched the exorcism performed by Father Lucas to a woman, Rosaria (Marta Gastini). Rosaria is one of the patients treated for exorcist in a long time. Altough she was possessed, she did not show an oddity. The demon that possessed Rosaria was very sneaky and did not revealed its existence at any time. Father Lucas tried to provoke anger the demon inside Rosaria. The demon became angry. Rosaria started acting weird. She spoke with some foreign language and voices. A few minutes later, Father Lucas managed to overcome the demon inside Rosaria.

But, all of that could not change what Michael thought. Michael considered that Rosaria get hallucinations because depression, not possessed. Michael said to Father Lucas that Rosaria need a psychiatrist not a priest. Michael was getting convinced with his own principle.

Father Lucas Trevant

Rosaria possessed

Some people said this film was not special, especially when looking Hopkins performance. They said that Hopkins performance in this film was still the same when he played in Red Dragon, Hannibal and Silence of The Lambs. Hopkins was too identical with psycho image. He has not been able to get out of the psycho image which already popularized his name in Oscar 1992 with Silence of The Lambs. Fortunately, I've never watched those movies, so I gave an assessment to Hopkins purely from The Rite. I really love Hopkins in this movie, especially when he said "Pockey Hockey Pocus Holy" or "Oopsie Daisy". He got the feeling well and has a good chemistry with O'Donoghue.

In my opinion, the weakness of The Rite is in less biting horror sensation. Do not imagine going to see an image possessed like in some films with exorcist-themed. Spinning head, flying body and crawling body over the wall. All of that does not exist in this movie. This film does not have a lot of things that usually make the audience shocked. The Rite offers a creepy side of exorcist-themed horror film from the story, sound and setting place. So, maybe some people will say "bored" when watching this movie, but I do not fell that. The creepy side as a horror movie can still be felt through the ancient buildings setting in Rome. Everything was paid off with some excess.

Possessed

Setting place in The Rite

If the exorcism movie usually focuses on possession and exorcism, but The Rite is a different. The contradiction between religion and science was alluded to in the film. The film also told the conflicts of faith in response to the call of life as a priest. Everything was strung properly, connected and stay fit with the idea, an exorcism. It;s something rarely if a horror movie can give a good message to the audience. Most of horror movie just prioritize how to make the audience fear and ignore the message, but not with The Rite. After watching this movie, I was reminded one of gospel from the Bible said "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:30). Everything that has been planned by Lord is good, but the demon within us or from the outside can mess it. Only by faith, we can remain in the Lord's plan. That's the message in The Rite.