As far as the movie itself is concerned, the voices of critics have been heard to label this one the neo-Exorcist, a movie of similar structure and form to William Friedkin's 1973 thriller of demonic possession. Such a nickname is not complimentary nor is it derisive; it is merely a statement of fact. There are so many parts of this movie that are drawn from The Exorcist that it's almost possible to consider this an updated vision rather than an independent effort.

      Stigmata stars Gabriel Byrne as Father Andrew Kiernan, a Jesuit who's the Catholic Church's version of a field officer. He travels around the globe, locating and disproving claims of miracles. In the opening scene, he discovers a statue of the Virgin Mary in a small village in Brazil which cries tears of blood. Not only is it human blood, but it's also warm.

      Kiernan reports as such to his superior in the Vatican, the shady Cardinal Housman (Jonathan Pryce), but Housman rejects the findings without a second thought and instead dispatches Kiernan to Pittsburgh where unassuming hairdresser Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) reportedly suffers from the title's stigmata. The stigmata are five different wounds identical to those on the body of Christ that have historically appeared on deeply devoted individuals, but Frankie is a self-confessed atheist, and so Kiernan is even more intrigued -- something else has got to be causing these stigmatic attacks.

      The stigmata themselves are not the movie's primary concern but rather a very visual way of manifesting a sort of possession that Frankie undergoes. Director Wainwright is concerned only with making sure the movie stays exciting, and so, like The Exorcist, a large part of Stigmata is merely shocking footage. (In fact, near the end of the film, events transpire to involve an exorcism; Wainwright seems to pull the plug in the middle of this scene, realizing that to go any further would cross the line between homage and piracy.)

      The true focus of the movie is pushed to the back in a subplot involving a forbidden text supposed by translators to be the actual words of Christ; also of interest is a vague romantic subtlety that develops, against the vows of the collar, between Kiernan and Frankie. These both might have helped Stigmata be a more suspenseful product had they not gone through the editing room, or been more aptly developed in the Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage script.

      Nevertheless, Stigmata is an exciting movie. And as Kiernan, Gabriel Byrne does the aspiring young priest quite well -- even if some of the issues that Kiernan must deal with are not adequately portrayed by Byrne and even if Byrne is pushing fifty. But Arquette is unremarkable as Frankie, and Pryce does a rather generic villain in Cardinal Housman.

      Those who genuinely enjoyed The Exorcist as a scary movie will doubtless find this just the same. Those who saw mastery in The Exorcist, however, are bound to be disappointed by the superficial nature of Stigmata. But it's definitely worth a once-over as perhaps a step ahead of most blandly pleasing thrillers.

Craig Roush, 1999