The Rite

Mikael Håfström's The Rite succinctly examines a doubting would-be Catholic priest's confrontation with theological proof. After having decided not to take his vows, Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) is 'convinced' to spend two months studying exorcism in Rome. He ardently believes that the possessed are simply suffering from mental illness and doesn't respond to his studies enthusiastically. In order to challenge his beliefs, Father Xavier (Ciarán Hinds) introduces him to an exorcist, Father Lucas Travant (Anthony Hopkins), who allows him to witness his sessions. The sessions are neither mundane nor theatrical and Kovak is initially disquieted by their quotidian mysticism. A beautiful reporter (Alice Braga as Angeline) writing a piece about the legitimacy of demonic possession is hoping to exercise his scoop, thereby serving to further destabilize his conscience. Then, as his father (Rutger Hauer) dies and Travant loses his mind, Kovak must decide where his belief truly lies.

The Rite is a modest sharp-witted calling card for the Catholic faith. The troubles facing Roman Catholicism in Western countries are resignedly referred to and the arguments contradicting its dogma given free room to play. The film is modest insofar as it doesn't bombard you with passionate pleas for legitimacy and showcases several characters, many of them of the faith, possessing the same doubts as the typical disbeliever. The film's modesty generates its sharp-wit because underlying its form is the awareness that intense elevations of Catholic principles don't receive much Western airtime these days, leaving proponents in check, requiring a subtle next move. The Rite is subtle and psychological and presented in the agnostic tradition while still remaining firmly devoted to Catholicism. On a spiritual intellectual contemporary level the film works. Structurally, however, it's somewhat condensed. The film is about Kovak but the most compelling character is Travant. If more screen time had been devoted to Travant's character, examining his history and conscience more zealously, his sudden decent into 'madness' would have seemed less like a gimmick and more like a tragedy.

1408

The latest Stephen King text to find its way to the big screen is 1408, an adaptation of the second short story found in the audiobook Blood and Smoke. Director Mikael Håfström delivers some genuine chills and pertinent thrills although the overall product warrants its PG-13 rating.

Nice to see John Cusack in a thriller. For a while, I figured Cusack's career would interminably churn out romantic-comedy after romantic-comedy, but, low and behold, the fates stepped in and provided us with 2005's The Ice Harvest, and, now, 1408. The thriller can occasionally till troubled ground for a performer's career, but a script like 1408's gives the actor in question enough room to competently maneuver (if she or he can resiliently respond to its frequent gesticulations). And Cusack sophisticatedly uses every second as disgruntled, sort of married, bitter, writer, Mike Enslin, whose life became a 24 hour misery after the death of his daughter. Enslin works as a travel writer who spends his time visiting hotel rooms that are reputed to be haunted, chronicling his visits in bargain bin novels that keep his surfboard afloat. When he discovers the Dolphin Hotel's fabled room 1408, with over 50 recorded deaths, he sets out for his first real encounter with the terrifying affects of the paranormal.

Which situates 1408 within the fable category of the thriller/horror genre. Rather than horror for horror's sake (see Rob Zombie's Halloween later this summer), 1408 has a moral dimension that its protagonist must face in order to challenge his nightmare. This moral dimension synthesizes well with the tame and frightening drama and allows 1408 to function as a successful introductory fright flick for those curious about the genre. While the ending can be thought of as a more docile version of John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, the ambience established throughout is of the cutesy variety that contains an horrific agenda of its own, depending upon the status of your belief in biblical good and evil, or, the intensity of your faith.