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| Movies,
Graham Bower,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F2
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Hollywood is renowned for it's graphic portrails of sex and violence on the big screen. Stigmata, however, goes further still, adding a liberal dose of blasphemy to the list of sins.
Maybe it was Tommy Lazarus's biblical name that inspired him to write sections of a new Gospel for the movie - a Gospel which we are supposed to believe is more beautiful than any in the Bible itself, and may well have been written by Jesus Christ himself. Challenging indeed, and Lazarus is clearly not averse to setting himself difficult tasks. Mixing his metaphors in a desperate attempt to sound spiritual, Lazarus's gospel is quoted at length by both Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne, in both English and ancient Aramaic. Which brings us on to the story.
When a top Vatican translator dies on the eve of completing the translation of a newly discovered Gospel, his spirit reaches out (bizzarely) to avowed athiest Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette). Frankie is used by the priest's spirit to spread the word of the new Gospel. As a local priest observes Frankie showing signs of being a stigmatic, Vatican paranormal investigator Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is brought in to investigate.
I guess I was hoping for a Catholic version of the X-Files. Instead, Stigmata is a movie version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" video. It's shot and edited in a style many have likened to that of David Fincher, but it does not have any of Seven's flair. Instead it just feels jerky and disjointed, frequently leaving the audience confused.
UK rating:
18
US rating:
R
Rupert Wainwright1999, US
Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Rade Serbedgia
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