'The Rite'

'The Rite' (PG-13) (2 stars)

Writer: Michael Petroni
Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Alice Braga, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones,
Rutger Hauer

"The Rite" starts out like it is going to be a tasteful examination of exorcisms. By the middle though I thought the movie was dull and too respectful. I wanted someone to pump some life into this slog. Then I started to get excited because Anthony Hopkins was going to go into Hannibal Lecter mode. As Hopkins character gets possessed by the devil I laughed more than I was scared. "The Rite" is deadly boring and safe and in the end even a hammy Hopkins can't do anything to save it. "The Rite" tells the story of a young seminary student named Michael Kovak who I guess is based on a real life priest in Chicago. Michael struggles with his faith and threatens to quit the seminary but is influenced into trying his hand at exorcisms. He travels to Italy and takes classes taught by a priest played by great character actor Ciaran Hinds. The priest hooks him up with another priest named Father Lucas Trevant, played by Hopkins, who will take Michael under his wings. Michael also meets a young woman Angeline played by Alice Braga who also wants to learn.

The set up to the movie is promising but nothing compelling really happens after that. There are a few exorcisms that are performed by Father Lucas and Michael but they are weak and dull. "The Rite" even starts to drag out and becomes super slow, even as much as "Biutiful" was. It doesn't help that Anthony Hopkins seems to be going through the motions. He is very good here in the opening scenes but this isn't anything new for him. It also doesn't help that the lead character played by newcomer Colin O'Donoghue is a stiff. This is a lifeless character and O'Donoghue makes no impression here. I was at the point where I started to want to experience some spinning heads, blood and vomit.

I appreciate that this movie is trying to be respectful and serious about it's subject. That doesn't mean you have to take some fun out of it. This is a PG-13 movie and that is fine but this snooze fest needs some outrageous shocks and gore. This movie has no suspense, no scares and not even a scene that makes you jump, hell the movie doesn't even have a pulse. When the climax comes and Hopkins starts to be possessed and starts acting spooky I figured the movie would start cooking. Boy was I wrong because Hopkins yells a lot and does some Lecter shtick but he is not scary and none of his dialogue is original. At least that woke up O'Donoghue for he finally shows emotion and starts screaming back at Hopkins. I started to laugh at all the wrong places and finally felt that I wasted two hours of my life. This is one of those movies you forget the next morning. It is one of those movies that gets mentioned years from now and you can't even remember it. This is a movie that might even be left off Hopkin's resume by accident.