Most of Thursday and Friday, I grumped about the selection of movies in town.  Playing around the country this week are The Constant Gardener, an intelligent thriller that opened nationally a week ago; new release An Unfinished Life, featuring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and J.Lo; and the documentary March of the Penguins, a summer surprise hit.

      None of these has made it to one of Carmike’s nine screens.  Instead, nothing has left town for two weeks and only two new shows – last week’s Transporter 2 and this week’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose – have arrived.

      Judging from its trailer, Emily Rose looked like a standard horror film, my least favorite genre – hence my grumping.  But a reviewer has to cover what’s new, so with little anticipation, I paid my money and prepared to endure the exorcism.

      Surprise! The Exorcism of Emily Rose turned out to be better than expected, thanks largely to an unusual blend of courtroom drama and supernatural thrill, a compelling visual texture, and strong performances from two veteran actors, Laura Linney (The Truman Show, Kinsey) and Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom, The Full Monty).

      Television shows like The X-Files and Lost have shown the creative potential in giving dramatic formulas (detective and castaway stories, respectively) a supernatural tinge; Emily Rose applies the same principle to the courtroom drama.  The movie begins with  Emily’s (Jennifer Carpenter) death, then unravels the story of her demonic possession in flashbacks. The exorcism scenes have the expected special effects, but the story concerns itself more with courtroom strategies and the case’s effect on defense attorney Erin Brunner (Linney).   

      She takes the case as an affirmed agnostic, but opts for a novel defense strategy – to argue the reality of demonic possession against the prosecution’s evidence that Emily’s “possession” was really a psychological disorder.  In the process, we see her gradually move toward an acceptance that there are some things beyond rational understanding.

      Linney is excellent, and Wilkinson, as the priest accused of negligent murder in the wake of the failed exorcism, provides a strong figure for her to play off.  He has everyone except Linney and the girl’s family against him – even the church wants to sweep the case under the rug for fear of being embarrassed – but remains granite-solid in his conviction that Emily’s trouble was supernatural and his insistence that her story be told.

      The film’s visuals are consistently perfect, from the opening shot of a weather-beaten farmhouse isolated on a frigid prairie, to the shabby courthouse exterior near-buried in fallen leaves, to the stark scenes at Emily’s college. In one scene, Emily sits in a shadowy classroom far darker than anything I’ve seen in a life of college teaching.  Then, as she flees an impending demonic attack, the outdoor lighting is a lurid orange, giving the prosaic setting a fantastic aura.

      The film is far from perfect. Its largest flaw is an often clunky script that yields groaners like Linney’s questioning the prosecutor (Campbell Scott) about his feelings on the case: “I ask because I know you’re a church-goer. . . prosecuting a man of God.”  Such dialogue seems crafted to telegraph the conflict of faith and reason, and could easily be discarded without harm to the movie – or the conflict.

      Then, too, Scott’s character feels underdeveloped.  We are told he is a man of strong religious faith, but we never see it in his performance – least of all in a closing argument that sneers at the priest’s belief and emphasizes complete rationality.

      But flaws in characterization and inadequate dialogue are common enough in the B-movie world of the horror film.  “Emily Rose” has enough else going for it to lift it above its generic cousins – call it a  “B+” movie at least.

 This review appeared in the Aberdeen American News on September 11, 2005.

Return to Wally Hastings's Film Reviews.
Return to Wally Hastings's Home Page.

This page last updated on September 11, 2005.