FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE
Intercutting between a melodramatic courtroom drama
and a spiritually malignant frightfest, both parts work individually, but
together they lend a sense of irrelevance to the other. Nineteen-year-old Emily
Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) believes she has been possessed after an ominous
near-death experience in her college dorm room. Once she begins to
literally see demons, the family priest, Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson), is
called in to perform an exorcism. He makes Emily stop taking her medication,
prescribed by her doctors for treating epilepsy. Within a few days
she is dead. The resulting trial focuses on whether the priest is responsible for
Emily's death or if the medication, as Father Moore argues, prevented
his exorcism from being successful.
The courtroom scenes are a roller coaster of intense set-ups
followed by weak - or sometimes no - payoffs at all. Laura Linney (Kinsey) plays a
defense attorney with a history of helping criminals
get away with murder. Her inner turmoil is hinted at, but never given much
serious attention. The film is constantly looking for a way to make her the
central character, but she is overshadowed by "supporting" characters such
as the Virgin Mary and the devil. A subplot centering on a doctor/witness
to the exorcism does nothing other than take up screen time, and an odd
cameo by Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) as an expert witness for the
defense fails at taking the film in a different direction.
Carpenter and Wilkinson do what they can with characters
that don't stray too far from the stereotypes created by The Exorcist, but the scenes
revolving around Emily's possession are gratifying
mainly because of their eerie look. Cinematographer Tom Stern is on a roll
after Mystic River and last year's Million Dollar Baby. The Exorcism of Emily
Rose has a number of vibrantly murky set designs, and the moment when Emily
disappears into the mist of her backyard, it is as beautiful as anything in
recent memory. Michael Belkewitch
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