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Printer-Friendly ModeExorcism leaves heads spinning
September 12, 2005 —
Looks can be deceiving, and so is the case with The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Trailers would lead you to believe that "Rose" is the second coming of The Exorcist, but it soon becomes clear that the picture has more in common with The Practice, than the 1973 classic.
"Rose" tells the story of Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), whose family enlists the help of their priest, Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson), when the girl begins showing signs of possession. After an attempted exorcism goes wrong and the girl dies, Moore is charged with negligent homicide. The story of the exorcism is told through flashbacks that are weaved into a bland and boring court story that takes up the majority of the film.
It is that very court story that forms the core fault of the film. Viewers think they are going to see a scary movie and are given but one moment that could actually be considered, "scary." The rest of the time, the audience is given a story of lawyers Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) and Ethan Thomas (Campbell Scott) jockeying in court to get evidence admitted and cross examining witnesses. In fact, Linney screams, "objection," more than Carpenter says anything at all.
The film is based on a true story, but a quick Google search can prove that "true" is a rather loose term. What is true is that the movie is rather forgettable and the moments of the film that are meant to be scary are just exhausted scare devices. There are numerous, "girl alone gets up in the middle of the night to investigate a strange noise and the lights won't come on," moments, none of which lead to anything more than a door slamming by itself.
To make matters worse, the majority of scenes outside the courtroom are "dark and rainy," leaving many in the audience to wonder if the film is set in the middle of a small town monsoon. Even a scene where Emily is in the middle of class features a dark classroom on a rainy night, setting up the potential that her Biology 100 class is at 3:00 in the morning.
The film really disappoints though when you realize just how many opportunities were missed to turn this into an ok film. Linney and Scott play decent rolls and Wilkinson is particularly convincing as Father Moore. Carpenter's role is rather limited, she spends most of the movie screaming and twitching on the floor, but it is an admirable twitch and scream at least. The potential to make a religious statement is obvious, as the clash between law and God are hinted at throughout. Nothing is really done with it though, other than taking the agnostic lawyer and scaring her with a few demonic moments. But even that is not enough to save a movie that's best scene features a main character doing nothing more than eating bugs.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is obviously not a good movie but it's not terrible either. It is destined to be forgotten, released on DVD in a year and make people say, "oh yeah, I remember when that was out." And when it is out, perhaps that is when your money will be best spent, paying a few bucks for the rental and hoping there are enough extras to make it worth the money.