rated on a 4-star scale screening venue : odeon ( liverpool city centre ) released in the uk by uip on january 21 , 2000 ; certificate 18 ; 102 minutes ; country of origin usa ; aspect ratio 2 . 35 : 1 directed by rupert wainwright ; produced by frank mancuso jr . written by tom lazarus , rick ramage . photographed by jeffrey l kimball ; edited by michael j duthie , michael r miller . " stigmata " starts as a badly made film , proceeds as a muddled one and ends up as psychotic . the final moments of this movie attack the roman catholic church in the manner of a deranged ex-girlfriend -- wasting our time , solemnly declaring ridiculous accusations , making a lot of noise but no sense . the first act introduces us to frankie paige ( patricia arquette ) , an attractive pittsburgh hairdresser who exists in one of those fairytale movie worlds where , at work , she walks in to find everyone greeting her like she's just come back from holiday , and , at night , she always gets to her favourite night club to find her friends already waiting there . there are lots of lingering close-ups of her drinks and cigarettes ; look , kids , she's naughty . . . this is what big grown-up people call a 'wanton lifestyle' ! meanwhile a priest played by gabriel byrne , father andrew kiernan , is travelling around the world investigating reports of miracles . he's an objective , scientific fellow , we learn , who would never be taken in by a hoax . but when he assesses a statue of the virgin mary that cries blood , and comes to the conclusion that the relic is genuine , the cardinals at the vatican don't pay it any mind . instead , they just send him on another assignment , this time to examine frankie . she has been seen reacting to hallucinations and displaying signs of stigmata , a phenomenon whereby christians with strong faith and empathy with jesus will break out in the wounds their saviour suffered on the cross . but frankie is an atheist , and the pointless middle of " stigmata " , which is a battle to stay awake through , mentions this discrepancy a lot without actually explaining it . instead , every " how could this happen to me ? " moment is interrupted by jarring music chords and fits of screaming , as frankie freaks out like linda blair in " the exorcist " . is she possessed by something evil , as blair's character was ? i'm still not sure . if i followed the movie correctly , the soul of a dead catholic priest has invaded her by storing his soul in magic rosary beads , to use her as a messenger and announce his discovery of christ's own version of the gospel . the stigmata is a side-effect of all the holy phenomena floating around , and this joyful miracle only seems like an attack by a demonic force because the priest is so darn angry at the state of the vatican . this is ridiculous , but gets even more farfetched , when the film explicitly accuses catholicism of being a conspiracy against god . just before the end credits , factoids and statistics appear onscreen to tell us how many reports of miracles the vatican have dismissed as fake . that the director , rupert wainwright , could think this is serious evidence of corruption suggests he's the kind of guy who would look at the circus antics of a kooky talk show like " jerry springer " and declare them to contain compelling social exposé . even his visual style gets on my nerves -- from the outset he keeps switching between grainy documentary realism and saturated slow-motion montages of bad dance music , which play like demented coca-cola commercials . watching gabriel byrne in this movie , i pondered the possibility that he enjoys deliberately appearing in bad religious pictures . only a few weeks ago he played satan in " end of days " , which , like " stigmata " , used half-baked knowledge about catholicism as an excuse for a lot of ugly gore and noise . byrne is a good actor ; if you ever pass by a film set and see him , try to get his autograph . if you see a crucifix anywhere nearby , though , ask him the title of the movie he's working on and tell all your friends to avoid it . copyright ( c ) 2000 ian waldron-mantganiplease visit , and encourage others to visit , the uk critic's website , which is located at <a href= " http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic " >http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic</a> 
