The Rite (2011)

In The Rite, an old priest and a young priest try to rid a potty-mouthed pubescent girl of her demons. But don’t, as Anthony Hopkins’ Father Lucas Trevant warns his companion, expect spinning heads or pea soup. This particular tale does best when it borrows least from the genre’s 1973 benchmark, The Exorcist.

As the film opens, Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue) is a young man working in his father’s (Rutger Hauer) home-based mortuary in Chicago. Even at 18, he knows the drill of that life too well. Convinced that his father would never pay for him to attend college, he secures a full-ride scholarship to attend Catholic seminary school. Even though Michael hasn’t felt the calling, it’s the only other profession his religious dad would ever approve. So he leaves for priest college intent on quitting after getting his degree and before taking his vows.

When Michael declares his unwillingness to take the vows in his final year of school, his academic advisor Father Matthew (Toby Jones) uses a grisly accident and a financial loophole to convince him to attend the Vatican’s new exorcism training in Rome for three months. A few classes here, a few theology debates with a pretty journalist (Alice Braga) there, and Michael is sent to study alongside Father Lucas, an eccentric Jesuit exorcist. The Father is working with a 16-year-old pregnant girl (Marta Gastini), who Michael is certain is mentally ill rather than demon-possessed, despite the mounting creepy evidence to the contrary.

Inspired by and adapted from Matt Baglio’s The Rite, a nonfiction book about a California priest who is apprenticed to an Italian exorcist and shadowed by a journalist, this film is compellingly quiet in its first hour or so. Director Mikael Hafstrom uses that time to shoot lovely tableaus of Roman ruins in the rain (in darkly atmospheric films like this one, it rains an awful lot) and the Vatican looming large in the background. Meanwhile, Michael Petroni’s script supports the entirely unhurried, devil-may-care (if you’ll pardon the pun) pace. Even in the first two attempts at exorcising the teenager, there’s no rush in the filmmaking in the same way that there’s no rush in this course of study for its main character. Neither is bogged down by a crisis of faith because neither seems to have ever believed.

It’s that dawdling tempo that draws you in and gives the film its urgency. O’Donoghue’s low-key acting style and Hopkins’ slightly mischievous portrayal in the early part of the film heightens the anticipation for what comes next. Hopkins spends half of his time chanting in Latin and sounding not quite convinced that what he’s saying has any meaning, and the other half imploring Michael to believe. This realistic portrayal of the doubting–but not existentially crippled–man of faith is a new twist on an old story. Who needs one more “my mother/wife/kid suffered so much, how can I possibly believe in God” story angle when skepticism comes as naturally as breathing in our modern world?

Unfortunately, that’s just the trite old line that The Rite brings out for its final 40 minutes. There are flashback scenes to Michael’s now-dead mother and allusions to the fact that his decision to give up God stems from it. And, of course, the demon uses these details to undermine the exorcism and put the two priests and the girl in peril. I thought you said there wasn’t going to be any pea soup, Father Lucas. This blatant borrowing from The Exorcist is as egregious as stealing that little trick.

Still, the most disappointing part of The Rite was its final exorcism scene, primarily because the film had built up so much subtle mood and acting that it seemed intent on squandering. Suddenly, over-the-top sound effects of the “demon’s voice,” hackie makeup, and left-field CG (there hadn’t been any to speak of up until this point) take over and refuse to go away. Perhaps the filmmakers thought they needed those bits to make Hopkins seem a little less like Hanibal Lecter in his evil ways, but it doesn’t work. Even in his old age, Mr. Hopkins is a fine actor, plenty menacing, and doesn’t need your help, especially not when it comes in the form of cheesy special effects.

Just as suddenly, The Rite ends–as quietly as it began–making you wish you could go back to rescript and re-shoot the last little bit for a more satisfying payoff. But, for all the time before that, it’s an entertaining, moody thriller. It’s too bad that the filmmakers decided to try to fill The Exorcist’s too-big shoes with bad special effects. Maybe the devil made them do it.