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By
WAYNE KLEIN
We're all dogged by our own
little demons that cast doubt, shake our faith in
ourselves and pull apart our world. However unlike
the character of Emily Rose in this thought
provoking drama none of our demons are named
Lucifer. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" tackles the
issue of faith, how science has displaced our
belief system rationalizing everything around us
and pulled us out of the psychological barbaric
dark ages. The film dares to ask, what if our
rational side is wrong? What if there are
supernatural forces beyond our comprehension,
which drive the world around us every day? A
compelling tale that mixes fact (the film is based
on the true story of Anneliese Michel documented
by Dr. Felicitas Goodman in the book "The Exorcism
of Anneliese Michel") with the format of a
suspense thriller, court room drama and delves
into the place of faith and reason in our society.
I've seen many people disappointed by the fact
that this isn't "The Exorcist." This is a suspense
drama NOT a horror film like "The Exorcist." The
exorcism itself isn't the focus of this movie but,
instead, a sidebar. This is really about the after
effects of what happens to Father Moore and Erin.
Laura Linney plays defense attorney Erin Bruner an
agnostic gun for hire that recently won a highly
publicized murder trial. When the head of her firm
(Colm Feore) asks her to take on a case for the
Catholic Church involving a priest Father Moore
(Tom Wilinson) accused of negligent homicide of
Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) she finds her
disbelief melting as she's drawn further and
further into the case. It seems that Emily, her
family and Father Moore believe that she was
possessed by the Devil. The prosecutor Ethan
Thomas (Campbell Scott) is a man of strong
religious beliefs who finds himself convinced that
the girl was an undiagnosed epileptic who died
because she was denied nutrition, medical help and
the medication to control her seizures. This
collision of church and state creates more than
sparks as Erin discovers disturbing evidence that
Father Moore may be right. She's further disturbed
when strange things begin to occur to her just as
they did to Emily and to Father Moore after the
death of Emily. A warning though to fans expecting
gore galore--this isn't your typical horror film
like "The Devil's Rejects" or "The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre." Instead, it's more of a suspense
thriller using elements of the horror genre.
A thought provoking film filled with intelligent
performances, some genuinely scary sequences and
many unanswered questions, "The Exorcism of Emily
Rose" may come across as a bit too pat at its
conclusion but the ride itself makes the film
worth it. This unrated version runs about 3
minutes longer than the theatrical version.
"Exorcism" doesn't have the heavenly glow of the
many brightly colored epics and comic book films
we've seen this year and that works to the film's
advantage. Filled with moody cinematography,
striking images and plenty of mystic fog the
transfer looks very good. There are some minor
issues with compression particularly during one
sequence involving heavy fog but, on the whole,
the film captures the stark and scary look of its
theatrical debut. The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
soundtrack becomes genuinely spooky during many of
the scenes involving Emily and Father Moore but
the more tense courtroom scenes come across as
much more passive involving only the ambience of
the court. That stark contrast between these two
worlds and experiences make the scenes involving
Emily's "breakdown" and exorcism all the more
riveting.
We get a featurette that examines the history of
the film and how the real event inspired the
filmmakers to tackle such a daunting project with
such an unusually intelligent approach. There's
also a featurette that focuses on the visual
approach for the film this is interesting as the
director is, essentially, telling two different
stories from two different points of view. As I
mentioned before very few films have balanced the
thriller aspects with those looking at the role of
faith in our society and "Exorcism," like "The
Exorcist," manages to transcend the limitations of
the genre. We also get a single deleted scene
that, although important from a character
development point of view, clearly would have
slowed the narrative down and was wisely
extracted.
The commentary by director/co-writer Scott
Derrickson focuses on many aspects of the
production from the elements they borrowed from
the real case to those of performance and
integrating visual effects into the film in a
believable fashion. The latter was missing from
both "Dominion" and "The Exorcist: The Beginning"
and, hence, undermined both those films from
becoming little more than a footnote in the
suspense/thriller/horror genre. In many respects,
Derrickson's film acts almost as a "sequel" to
"The Exorcist" (as that film was also based on a
real life exorcism they share an incident that
occurred as the basis of their projects).
Derrickson's comments are intelligent and
thoughtful about the project and the challenges he
and his cast faced in making the story both
compelling and believable.
The unrated version (which is the version I saw)
doesn't appear to me to feature any more gore than
the theatrical version. My guess is that it
features scenes that run just a tad bit longer but
weren't included in the theatrical version. While
the film sputters a bit by the time of the
conclusion, the two-hour journey was still more
than worthwhile. A warning though to fans
expecting gore galore--this isn't your typical
horror film like "The Devil's Rejects" or "The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The film manages to
combine elements of "The Exorcist" and shows like
"Law & Order" into a compelling mix all its own.
Drawn into the darkness that consumes Emily both
Father Moore and Erin are changed forever by their
experience. |
