Wonderfully offbeat film!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a movie about a man's agony in finding faith in God.The culmination of the film is the protagonist's Spiritual Choice.Spiritual Choice comes with doubts, confusion and hesitation, which are always in our way at any particular period of one's life.The protagonist is at a higher level of consciousness than the average human, which is what makes the Choice so tough. An interactive physical reality plays strangely around the protagonist and he starts to think he is going insane. His Choice of Light is not obvious to either himself or the movie's audience.However, after a long period of struggling with his inner self, Michael, with the help of other people and situations, finally makes his Choice to head toward Light and obtains Faith in God. The chosen direction opens a New Path to Michael – to help other people.P.S. This story is a great example of the significant effort our Higher Brotherhood puts into each and every one of us to help with our Choice towards Light!Also, I like that in this movie a Church is shown as a powerful institution, one with the skills and intelligence to support and help people, which is unfortunately not always the case.The Rite is an excellent movie and I highly recommend it to any spiritual seeker.

Since the uncompromising success of the 1973 horror film 'The Exorcist', Hollywood has spawned many attempts to revitalize the concept of exorcisms and demons in the effective manner the aforementioned film achieved. The results are rarely successful, or even passable for that matter. This religious-based horror thriller offers a slightly less sobering portrayal of exorcism and casting the demon out of a supposed tortured soul. Director Mikael Hafstrom does so by reducing grotesque depictions of blood and gore, and horrifically graphic imagery that have become established tropes of the exorcism-horror subgenre. His efforts transpire to a slightly more realistic approach on the Catholic Church's practices of exorcism. But the question is does the film succeed in terms of scares? Sadly, it does not, nor does it amount to anything beyond a bland exorcism masquerade. This film follows Michael Kovak (played by Colin O'Donoghue), a twenty-something year old seminary student struggling with his faith who holds resentment for his mortican father(played by Rutger Hauer) who wants him to go into the family business. He is coaxed by his mentor Father Matthew (played by Toby Jones) to travel to Rome and take a course on exorcism taught by Father Xavier (played by Ciaran Hinds), hoping it could restore his faith. Seeing his crisis in faith, Xavier sends Michael to an unorthodox exorcism expert Father Lucas (played by Anthony Hopkins). As the two bond, Lucas prepares for what could be his most faith- defining exorcism of his life. From the first quarter of the film, it grows almost explicitly clear what director Hafstrom is trying to achieve, and there is some compelling evidence that his ideas have potential. Unfortunately, the direction in which he operates falls shallow of energy that could have made for a more compelling supernatural vehicle. The first hour moves at a sluggish pace, offering striking arguments on the existence of God as well as compelling debates on the presence of heaven and hell. This accounts to some somewhat intriguing commentary on Catholicism. But when it comes to building up the story, that is where things get increasing faulty. The story grows tedious and slaps viewers with jump scares of grotesque imagery that come far and few in between, before arriving at its formulaic climax. And it certainly does not help that the lead character in which the story revolves around in such a humdrum character while Anthony Hopkins's Father Lucas is the one exceedingly stealing the show. Colin O'Donoghue's performance is fine to say the least, but it does little justice for how uninteresting his character. Easily the striking star here is Anthony Hopkins who breaths immense atmosphere and grit to his role. Looking back at his talent in roles such as Hannibul Lector in the 'Hannibul' series', it is little wonder why Hopkins effectively suites the role. In the end, he at least becomes the saving grace of this otherwise forgettable exorcism fare. The Rite may wield the compelling theatrical talent of Anthony Hopkins, but it fails to deliver the scares and thrills to compete with the criminally shallow execution. Sure, they are plenty of intriguing concepts about Catholicism and the existence of God that serves for good food-for-thought for religious viewers aching to see this film. Above it all, it is sadly forgettable.

Before "The Rite" hit theaters, the marketing campaign had painted the film as yet another in a long deluge of demonic possession thrillers akin to "The Exorcist", which is unfortunate because, in reality, this isn't much of a horror film. There's a much closer kinship to something like "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" than "The Last Exorcism" or its ilk.The story features a young, troubled man, Michael (Colin O'Donohough), who joins the clergy to escape his father's influence by abandoning his family's profession as morticians. While studying theology, Michael is tapped to join an exorcism course in Rome where he becomes acquainted with a slightly quirky priest (Anthony Hopkins) that performs exorcisms on a regular basis.What is most damning to the movie is that it's an atypically literate, slow-paced film that seems less interested in thrilling the viewer as making them think about the legitimacy of exorcism and its connection to Christian faith. The movie is assisted by a reasonably strong cast and strong direction from Mikael Hafstrom, who has developed an interesting filmography with his Stephen King adaptation "1408" and his dumb-fun "Escape Plan". The story makes sense and never devolves into cheap scare tactics; the filmmakers obviously respected that audiences aren't totally stupid and could enjoy a film without explosions and green vomit.Despite being a refreshingly tempered and literate film, "The Rite" fails mostly due to two problems. The first is that, for all its logical discussion about faith and skepticism, the issue is shot down fairly quickly--and concretely--and never treated seriously as the film's dramatic elements begin to escalate. Michael brings up several obvious concerns about treating demonic possession, but is treated as if he has goat feces all over his face. Later, in the face of a possession, Michael looks incredibly stupid by continuing to limply insinuate a young woman is mentally ill despite hearing his friend's voice and vernacular coming from a woman who can't even speak English and needed a translator to speak with him. To put it bluntly, the main character is an idiot.The second problem is that the film doesn't try to scare the audience nor does it provide anything that is unsettling or even mildly chaffing. Considering the implication that demonic possession is real, the film's supposed attempt at building a tense final third fall flat; Hopkins can't even inject much intensity into the showdown between priest and demon.Genre fans will be enthused to know that Rutger Hauer has a small role as Michael's father and his performance is by far and away the creepiest thing in the film."The Rite" is a well-made film, but it lacks any punch thanks to a lacking storyline and listless performances by the principle cast.2 out of 4

Talking to my dad about getting ready to take part in the October Horror Challenge on IMDb's Horror board,I was happily caught by surprise,when he revealed that he had picked up a title for me to view during the challenge,which led to me getting ready to find out how rite things could go.The plot:Nearing the end of his training to be a vicar, Michael Kovak writes a letter to Father Matthew saying that he wants to quit the course due to having a lack of faith.Meeting Matthew,Kovak is told that his resignation has not yet been accepted,due to Matthew wanting Kovak to meet a Father Lucas Trevant,who is involved in the exorcism of demons. Meeting Trevant,Kovak is allowed to go along with Trevant to visit patients he is attempting to exorcise. Initially sceptical over Trevant's claims,Kovak soon finds himself coming face to face with the devil.View on the film:Before getting to the film,I have to give a mention to the shockingly poor treatment that Warner's have given the title on R2 DVD,with the movie featuring a good amount of dialogue in Italian,which is not translated in auto-subtitles,and is also left a number of times completely untranslated in the official subtitles(such as the DVD Subtitles saying "Trevant speaks Italian" during a 5 minute scene,almost all of which is in Italian!) Brought in by the producers to bring Matt Baglio's non-fiction book The Making of a Modern Exorcist,the screenplay by Michael Petroni keeps any sense of doubt from Kovak to be presented in an insular manner,which leads to any doubts behind the psychological effects that the exorcism's have on people to be an issue which is quietly pushed aside.Along with the insular treatment towards even the slightest bit of a sceptic thinking,Petroni also keeps away from giving the patients the slightest sense of an outline,which leads to the films attempt to build a sense of fear to quickly burn out,thanks to the viewer having been unable to connect to the victims in any manner.While Colin O'Donoghue gives a surprisingly flat performance as Kovak,Anthony Hopkins lights up the screen as Trevant,with Hopkins showing a real skill at mixing the somber with unexpected comedic one-liners,as Trevant and Kovak look into the eyes of their own demons.