Movie Review: Stigmata

I watched the 1999 film Stigmata this morning. I noticed the way the movie looked visually and immediately thought the director, Rupert Wainwright, must be a music video director as well (after looking him up, I was right). The use of imagery is a good giveaway to this fact (another example of noticing the imagery of a music video director is the film One Hour Photo directed by Mark Romanek, starring Robin Williams). Anyway, the visual effects of the movie were excellent. The film opens with a white stone statue crying blood, which is very memorable.

The basis of the story is a woman, Frankie Paige (played by Patricia Arquette), who is given a rosary by her mother who bought it from a boy on the streets of Brazil. But, the rosary was stolen from the coffin of Father Alameida. So, soon Frankie begins suffering from signs of the Stigmata which leads to Father Andrew Kiernan (played by Gabriel Byrne), a scientist and priest, being sent to study her. At first he is skeptical of it since she is a self-professed atheist. I found myself looking away from the screen several times as the depiction of the blood from Arquette's wounds is quite graphic. Apparently, Father Alameida is using Frankie's body as a messenger to spread the word of Jesus Christ; the actual word of Jesus, mind you. It seems that a scroll was found that bears the actual words of Jesus Christ, but the Vatican is against the document as it is against what they believe. The document by Jesus says that he is inside us. "Not a mansion of stone or wood. Cut open the wood, I am there. Move the stone, I am there." Or something like that. Basically, as a character says in the movie, there is no need for the church buildings as Jesus is inside and the buildings only stand between the two.

The movie is loosely based on the fact of an actual scroll being found in 1945 near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The scroll is said to be the Gospel of Thomas and is said to have the closet actual documentation of the words of Jesus Christ, yet the Vatican denies the document and claims it heresy.

I enjoyed the movie, but think it could have been so much better. It's a great idea for a film, but it seems like it was rushed. I see it as another example of a great work that could have been even greater if it had been given enough time for development. All in all, definitely a good movie. Good, not great. Just good.