Firstly, it's been a long time since I've done one of these. If my calculations are correct (to channel Doc Brown for a moment), ironically enough, the last "night out at the cinema" style review was another exorcism flick, "The Last Exorcism." In many ways, that was a movie that just infuriated me; there were long stretches of it that were really great, which made the parts in it that sucked (most specifically the final 15 minutes or so) all the more frustrating. Thankfully, that's FAR from the case with Mikael Hafstrom's "The Rite," a movie that's about five times as good as I expected considering that there was a good probability earlier in the day that (a) I'd skip the movie based on the 15% rating it has on RottenTomatoes, or (b) fall asleep in the damn movie theater just like I do pretty much every other week. Even more thankfully, it avoids all of the faults of "The Last Exorcism," and is really one of the most satisfying films of any genre that I've seen in a public movie house in quite some time.For starters, I have to make one thing abundantly clear - there's one aspect of this movie's promotional campaign that is VERY misleading. It's Anthony Hopkins' name emblazened in big, bold letters above the marquee, complete with the ever-so-handy "Academy Award Winner" tag that accompanies every recipient of those awards for the rest of their career. In truth, he's a secondary character; the movie's central story and character arc revolves around a character portrayed by an actor (Colin O'Donoghue) that I've never heard of, seconded by an actress that I know as Jude Law's love interest in "Repo Men" and the tough-as-nails chick from "Predators." It matters little; there's just enough Hopkins there to satisfy anyone who plunked down their hard-earned money to see Hannibal Lecter himself, and what you actually see is compelling enough to warrant the dollars spent.
The movie immediately introduces us to Michael Kovak (O'Donaghue), a young mortician's assistant going through the grisly motions of embalming a body. He performs it with a cool detachment, and in these opening scenes, he's shown to be very distant with his father (Rutger Hauer, who makes the most of his screen time). There's also a cameo by Chris Marquette, the guy who will forever be known to yours truly as Linderman from "Freddy vs. Jason," as Michael's friend in a bar scene that establishes the stipulations of Michael's life; everyone in his family turns out to be either a mortician or a Priest. Since hanging out with his father doesn't sound like fun, it's off to seminary for Michael.
Throughout the movie, we're shown various bits from Michael's childhood involving the fate of his mother; since my movie theater has terrible sound, I believe one of the bits of dialogue states that she committed suicide. The strained relationships with both parental units has obviously taken quite a toll on Michael, and The Rite wastes little time establishing the "crisis of faith" motif that rides throughout the flick's robust 127-minute running time. Moving right along, his instructor at seminary rejects a resignation letter, and instead sends him to Rome to take an exorcism class.
While there, he meets up with an attractive journalist named Angelina (Alice Braga, the aforementioned Repo Men and Predators hottie) taking the same class in order to both get a story and atone for the death of her brother, and (finally) Hopkins, who portrays Father Lucas, the grizzled, experienced Father Merrin of the film. It goes without saying for a guy with as long and storied of a pedigree as Hopkins has, but he's electric in the role, lending slight touches of comic relief along with his trademark charm and creepy vibe when called for. This being a movie about exorcism, it doesn't take long for Michael and Lucas to begin seeing some VERY troubled patients.
It's in these passages that "The Rite" has some very effective horror scenes. I won't go into extreme detail about the more fantastic aspects of this story (which was "suggested by" a book written by Matt Baglio, which is definitely a first for this reporter when it comes to crediting), but there's one possessed victim in particular - a pregnant 16-year-old who may or may not have been raped by her father - that comes across as both heartbreaking and stomach-churning. Awesome stuff, and while all of this is going on, the two wildly different Priests carry on a nice little debate about the events unfolding before their very eyes.
The biggest surprise that I had with "The Rite" was just how it chose to present its story. The journey that the character of Michael goes through - a doubter who frequently questions the existence of the very thing that he has spent years of his life studying - is the main conflict in the movie, and as all sorts of demonic happenings begin populating the movie, it comes as to little surprise as to just what the final exorcism in the movie entails. While trying my best not to spoil anything, I have to say that "The Rite" boasts two things that instantly put it ahead of many, many other recent thriller films - it doesn't have some wackamaroo twist ending, and it actually has a solid, A-B character arc that is played out in a logical manner. I'll leave it up to the viewer to see this unfold.
There's not really a whole lot more to say about this movie, other than the fact that I highly enjoyed it. The direction by Hafstrom is gritty and atmospheric, the jump scares are kept to a minimum (although there is one very literal "cat scare" that made me laugh in the theater), and all of the actors give it their damndest, particularly Hopkins and Braga. For reasons that I won't get into, I doubt there will be many other readers of this review who will enjoy the movie as much as I did, but without hyperbole, this is a movie that has one of the most emotional, resonant, and satisfying ending sequences I've seen from a major studio movie in years. *** 1/2 out of ****, and highly recommended.
