Review of 'The Rite': an uncompelling film that lacks answers to the truth

RATING: 2/5

"Uncompelling" is the word that comes to mind. Only during the first and last 15 minutes are there any interesting plot elements that convince the audience to ask the all important question: What happens next? The rest of the film is a slow, uneventful series of bland exorcisms and quasi-theological discussions with a handful of throwaway characters strewn throughout.

"The Rite" tells the story of a young seminarian, Michael Kovak, who is sent to Rome to study the rite of exorcism. He is having doubts about religion. The main reason he had joined the seminary in the first place was to get a free education. Now, as a last ditch effort to keep him in the program, his Father Superior (who never appears again) has sent him to Rome hoping that the trip will restore the young man's faith.

It is while taking the exorcism classes that Kovak meets Angelina, a journalist who is writing an article on the course for her newspaper and who has no real importance to the story. The priest (also unimportant) teaching the course later introduces Kovak to an "experienced exorcist" named Father Lucas (played by Anthony Hopkins). The priest lets Kovak tag along as he goes about his business exorcising a few possessed people who have no substantial relevance to the story. Kovak and Father Lucas seem to be the only characters that have any purpose in the movie, but that might just be because they have the most screen time.

"The Exorcism of Emily Rose" is a better example of a movie that debates the existence of demonic possession. For one thing, it had more at stake. In that movie, a priest was on trial for murder, so the conclusion the jury arrived at regarding the existence of demons really mattered. In "The Rite," all we have is one man's crisis of faith. In real life, sure, that's an important thing.  But this inner conflict isn't enough to carry the movie, which rests its entire weight on the poor seminarian's shoulders.

"Emily Rose" also had a better story. Throughout it, characters were interacting with each other and the plot was developed through those interactions. There were also meaningful turning points and important revelations. "The Rite" lacks a lot of this. If you look closely at its story, you notice there are only two plot points of any significance. The first is at the beginning - Kovak being sent to Rome. The second is at the end, and you can probably guess what it is if you've seen the trailer. Everything else could have been cut out and the new 30 minute movie would have reached the same conclusion. If the whole middle hour of a film is unnecessary, and only two of the characters have any importance, then you don't have much of a movie.

And of course, "The Exorcist" is still the best movie about demonic possession to date. The major difference between "The Exorcist" and "The Rite" is that even though in both movies there is a character that has a crisis of faith, "The Exorcist" assumes that demons (etc.) are real, while "The Rite" seems to have a crisis of faith as a movie. "The Exorcist" had an answer to its mystery (i.e. what's wrong with little Linda Blair?) and it took pleasure in gradually revealing the truth, scaring us with escalating fantastically horrific events. "The Rite" has no real answer to its mystery. It doesn't know what to believe. It mixes explainable phenomenon with a sprinkle of those cheap unexplainable scares that seem required of it to be considered a horror movie: actual animal growls coming from people, doors slamming on their own, an impossibly distorted, echoing voice.

A horror movie can scare you one of two ways: by showing the monster, or by not showing the monster but letting you know it's present. For most of "The Rite", you're not sure a monster's even there. Because of this, and because is has so little story, it lacks tension and suspense and fails to be compelling.