# Stigmata (1999)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    STIGMATA
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  1/2

Having exhausted the possibilities of extreme violence as a way to shock audiences, filmmakers are always looking for other methods to give the viewers cheap thrills. STIGMATA uses the Church, specifically the Catholic Church, as a rich source of cheap exploitation. Although other films, most notably THE EXORCIST, have explored similar themes, most of them are literary classics compared to STIGMATA.

As written by Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage and directed by Rupert Wainwright, the movie tries every tired trick in the book. Loud sounds explode suddenly and often, like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Filmed with harsh, rock-video sensibilities, the film features buckets of blood, lit as if by the neon from a sleazy motel sign. No idea is too crass to be included. The low point, in a movie full of nothing but, is the stranger on the curb who drops her baby wrapped in swaddling clothes under the tire of a speeding car in heavy traffic.

When we meet Father Andrew (Gabriel Byrne), he's on his way to work at the Holy See. Three gaudily dressed prostitutes shake their breasts at him and offer to give him "the Vatican Special."

An organic chemist turned priest, who admits he hasn't prayed in a very long time, Father Andrew works in the scientific investigation arm of the Vatican. This, in case you didn't know, is the one with all of the sophisticated instruments to look into cases of religious miracles. Father Andrew just finished verifying that a stone statue actually shed warm, human tears. He's told to forget it. His superiors, led by a nefarious, double-dealing Cardinal Vignielli (Jonathan Pryce), seem to employ a host of researchers in order to hide what they discover.

The Vatican, it turns out, is more secure that our weapons' labs. Documents are divided into threes with every third page given to a different religious order to study.

Normally, Gabriel Byrne is able to bring a sweet, honest intensity to his parts, but all his attempts this time to infuse his character with at least a hint of humanity are utter failures. To be fair, the hackneyed material he has to work with makes the project impossible.

Frankie (Patricia Arquette), "an accredited cosmetologist," who lives in a room with a thousand candles, is sent a gift by her mother. Although Frankie assumes it is a necklace, her mother has to set her straight. "It's a crucifix, dear," she tells her daughter.

The picture cuts to Frankie in the bathtub. After a dove flies overhead, Frankie starts spurting blood in some of the places where Jesus had nails driven into him on the cross. She convulses violently as if she were having sex with the devil.

Arquette displays all of the talent of someone taking Acting 101 at a community college. Between long, vacant looks, she bursts into brief spasms of unbelievable, emotional tantrums.

Father Andrew is sent to look into Frankie's situation. He explains how extremely devout people, something she certainly isn't, sometimes have been known to bleed in the places where Christ was cut. These spontaneous, unexplained events are known as stigmata.

Frankie is not a happy camper. She blames the God she never knew for causing all her misery, as she continues to feel nails being driven into her hands and feet. "You know what is scarier than not believing in God?" she asks her girlfriend. "Believing in him!"

The horror movie part is increasingly subsumed by a story about a vast Vatican conspiracy to cover up the "missing Jesus Gospel." Religious leaders have people murdered so that the Church is not undermined. Chief among these supposedly revolutionary and unknown thoughts of Jesus are that "The kingdom of God is inside you and all around you."

Never coming close to achieving the level of laughably bad, the dry and ludicrous STIGMATA never rises above painfully bad. Search as one might, there isn't a single interesting or original moment in it.

STIGMATA runs 1:42. It is rated R for intense violent sequences, language and some sexuality and would be acceptable for older teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

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