|
|
Rating:  - Good drama based on a true story.
I orginally saw this movie as a rated version and came away very confused. I really enjoyed the unrated version of this film. It made much more sense to me. I don't know the difference in the two, but this one (to me) gave alot more explaination to what had happened. I do give the priest alot of credit going the full length and seeing it through. I won't give it away, so just see the movie and decide for yourself.
Rating:  - Poor Anneliese...
I had very high expectations of this film because I studied under the school of techniques put forth by the author of the book it was based on--Dr. Felicitas Goodman. She was a shaman, but in my eyes not only a shaman, but one of the last of the forerunners in the western world who was truly schooled in the olde way yet capable of working that path into the frequencies and energy currently available to the planet. She was a rare bird. Apart from her very open and well schooled view on shamanic work, she had the ability to blend the psychological, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual into her work to create amazing outcomes. She excluded nothing. So of course in that light the film had nowhere to go but down.
The film is based on her book "The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel", and it's fantastic. The book is her translation of the documents and letters surrounding the possession and subsequent death of Annelise Michel. I could elaborate all day on what makes it unique in the field of depossession. Suffice it to say that she stumbled on some findings that if others in the western world had conceived, did not have the confidence to assert them publicly. I had read her other works before this one and already realized her contributions in shamanism, but when I read this book I really felt like I was reading the words of a pioneer in an incredibly misunderstood field of wellbeing.
Anneliese was a young German woman from a very closed off town that was deeply religious. No really--deeply religious, which is very significant to her plight. As she became college aged and was faced with moving to the city and having a boyfriend she began to have problems. Thinking they were mental concerns she was treated for epilepsy. She insisted that she was possessed and the medications weren't helping. As she was an adult and could legally decide for herself, she eventually stopped taking the drugs, stopped eating, and died while the exorcism was being carried out. She essentially chose to starve herself to death. Her parents and two priests went to prison short-term for her death.
The film butchered her story. It still managed to assert some of the core truths of Goodman's work, but it was all very wrapped in conjecture and voodoo. The film's goal was to blend a horror and courtroom drama and it failed both miserably. It really should have picked one and run with it. It wasn't particularly scary, but there was one scene that lasted a split second that was gruesomely gorgeous. It was absolutely haunting and it really seemed to capture the essence of what Anneliese actually went through. I am going to check out "Requiem" when it comes out on DVD, as it's supposed to be more true to her life story. It always irks me that Hollywood has to shake up real cases of experiences with the paranormal, when if they would stick to the real story, it's far more hair raising than any special effect. But we don't want to portray the truth of what's possible. That would be too close to home.
Rating: - TORTURED INNOCENCE
A priest (Tom Wilkinson)is put on trial for contributing to the death of a girl named Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter). The prosecutor wants to hang the priest out to dry for the maximum sentence, but a promotion seeking defender (Laura Linney) is hired by the Church to defend him. She's a good lawyer but the Church wants his defense to be as low-key as she can make it to spare itself embarrassment. The state believes that the priest caused the death of Emily by denying her medical treatment and starving the girl to death. The priest denies these charges and instead claims that the girl died as a result of a botched exorcism that he was conducting to throw a demon out of her body! The film alternates between courtroom scenes set in the present and flashbacks to Emily's story.
This movie has some big shoes to fill, and you probably already know that I am referring to the original Exorcist from the 1970s, which inch for inch, is probably the most disturbing and terrifying movie ever made. So any other work that takes up the same subject is automatically at a disadvantage. The problem with this movie is that while Emily is the true subject of it, she receives very little characterization. You see her for like 40 seconds leaving her seemingly inbred community for college, and the next thing you know, she's seeing demons and getting assaulted Entity style in her dorm room. And why am I supposed to care about this girl? The writers made a big mistake by not giving her any depth. For all we know, she's always been a psycho, and the devil had nothing to do with it. Another problem with the movie is that it's just not that scary. I mean, really, would the Devil manifest itself on Earth to do cheap parlor tricks, appearing in a black hood, and make people do body contortions? I mean, doesn't he have better things to do? In the end, it seems as though this is a morality tale saying that bad things happen to good people simply "Because". The acting was great, especially with the ever consitent Wilkinson, and Carpenter does a good job even though her entire range is either being psychotically depressed or psychotically possessed. Even though this version says "Unrated", there is nothing here that couldn't be shown on network television.
Rating: - Best film on the differing views of the demonic
OK, this movie isn't a masterpiece. That being said:
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is the best movie I've seen about the differing world views about the demonic.
By setting the story in a courtroom, the directors are able to give equal weight to the traditional church view of the demonic and also the scientific world view.
If you watch horror film to scare yourself, this may not be the one. There are some fairly scary scenes but that's doesn't seem to be the point.
The movie accepts that demon-possession is reality for some people -- but that there are at least two radically different ways to look at this reality.
I've never seen a better film (or book, for that matter) which shows how well-meaning people can experience the same phenomenon yet interpret it completely differently.
I deducted a star (or maybe two) because some of the acting struck me as a little flat and there were a couple of other flaws in the film making. Not bad, but this isn't a five star movie. Worth watching? Certainly yes.
Rating: - unconventional horror film
***1/2
"The Exorcism of Emily Rose" approaches its subject matter with a bit more intelligence and thought than we are used to in films of this type. The movie, in fact, is more of a courtroom drama with supernatural elements than a flat-out horror film in its own right.
Based on a true story, the film begins with the death of a 19-year-old girl from what appears to be a botched exorcism. The priest in charge of the ritual, Father Moore, is arrested and put on trial for negligent homicide. Erin Bruner, a self-described "woman of doubt," is the attorney hired by the Catholic archdiocese to defend the case. At first, Bruner is skeptical of Father Moore's story of what happened to the girl, but after she herself begins to experience strange, unexplainable phenomena in her own life, she comes to believe that there just might be a plausible supernatural explanation for the death.
Eschewing most of the over-the-top silliness usually associated with demon-possession scenarios, "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" prefers, instead, to concentrate on the running battle between science and rationality on one side and religion and faith on the other that has become a commonplace in our more enlightened modern times. Although the movie clearly sides with the supernatural explanation, it still leaves room for the more skeptical among us to have their say. The dialogue is generally sharp, insightful and thought provoking and the screenplay treats the spokespersons from both sides of the argument with dignity and respect.
Although this film is set in the rural Midwest, the actual "Emily Rose" was a German girl named Anneliese Michel who died in 1976 and whose grave in Germany has since become a pilgrimage site for believers convinced that she was indeed possessed by Satan.
The real focus of the film, however, is on the lawyer, Bruner, who undergoes a spiritual reassessment as a result of her involvement in the case. Laura Linney, as always, brings a seriousness and intelligence to her role of a woman who has her entire view of the world and how it works irrevocably shaken up and altered by the experience.
Diehard horror film fans may be disappointed by the relatively short shrift given to the possession sequences, which are seen only in flashbacks and, which, despite their commendable restraint, often have the feel of a warmed-over "Exorcist" about them (although that is practically inevitable with any movie on this subject at this point, I would imagine). However, it is as a courtroom drama that the film scores most of its hits, and those of us who have watched with dismay the steady degeneration of the horror movie genre of late are quick to welcome this approach.
|
|