THE RITE (Mikael Håfström). 112 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (January 28). For movie times, theatres, and trailers see Movies. Rating: NN
The Rite unsuccessfully attempts to mimic another influential horror movie to frighten a whole new generation into converting to Catholicism. Colin O’Donoghue plays an American semi nary student of little faith who gets a free trip to Rome to study exorcisms. Under Anthony Hopkins’s Jesuit priest, he witnesses some possible examples of demonic possession yet remains utterly unconvinced – until things get personal.
Director Mikael Håfström cloaks the proceedings with a sheen of middlebrow respectability, prefacing the pic with the ambiguous phrase “inspired by true events” and hiring fine actors like Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones to sport robes and bad haircuts and straight-facedly speak hokum about evil spirits.
The movie takes a good hour to get going, and the special effects aren’t that special: a bit of skin discolouration, some gymnastic stunt work and a lot of annoying musical cues. Hopkins is much more fun as a toad-faced baddie than he is as a pious and saintly priest. He also needs someone to act opposite. Newcomer O’Donoghue, whose blue eyes express little except contempt and boredom, is no Jodie Foster.
And although the film’s set in Italy, there’s no compensatory mention of fava beans or a good chianti.
