What do you think of this story?

Click here to send a message to the editor.

Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

“The Exorcism of Emily Rose”

The previews for this movie were really creepy. “How could this movie possibly be rated PG-13,” I wondered while watching them day after day on television. Here’s how - all the creepy parts came in three brief flashbacks and the rest of the film was a courtroom drama. Think “Law and Order” meets an episode of “The X Files.” It’s not necessarily a bad film, but it just as easily could have been a Made for TV movie. Sure, you wouldn’t have the top notch cast like Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson and Campbell Scott, but you would have achieved the same goal, saved a lot of money and saved people a lot of time.

Apparently, the film is based on a true story. Emily Rose comes from a devoutly Catholic family and soon after going to college feels like she has been possessed by demons. The doctors at school think it is a combination of epilepsy and psychosis. They prescribe a drug to help with her symptoms but she and the family priest see no change. The priest tells her to go off the drug and thinks an exorcism may be in order. It doesn’t work the first time, Emily doesn’t consent to another and soon she dies. The state is determined to try the priest for negligent behavior leading to her death and the archdiocese wants to defend the priest while sparing the church embarrassment.

“The Exorcism of Emily Rose” really does play a lot like a television court drama. Much of the story is played out in flashbacks and the audience doesn’t know which way the jury will go until the end of the film. Both Linney and Scott as the defender and prosecutor, respectively, do a good job of presenting their cases, although Linney’s argument, the one that says that maybe she really was possessed, was weaker than the state’s case. In fact, audience members minds likely won’t be changed by the arguments in this film. You either believe that the devil himself had nothing better to do and decided to possess an innocent farm girl in her first year of college or you don’t. I didn’t. In fact, I thought that these demons, one of whom claimed to be the devil himself, were merely annoying. Ooh, they stopped an alarm clock and made Linney late for court. Ooh, they made her break a glass in her darkened kitchen. Ooh, they summoned several stray cats to attack the priest in a barn.

Maybe if it was rated R, the demons could have done a little more.

My other problem was with Emily herself. The actress portraying her looked weird - very un-Hollywood which worked both for her and against her at different times during the film. When you get right down to it, all she really did was scream and half the time that was digitally enhanced anyway with splices of Latin and Aaramiac thrown in to the mix.

This is not a bad movie, but it isn’t “The Exorcist” either. If you can’t get enough courtroom drama and you don’t want to watch Court TV or hear Nancy Grace, check this film out. It will creep you out briefly and it might make you ponder the difference between facts and faith, but probably not.

• * 1/2