Review: The Rite

In The Rite, Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue) is a trainee priest at an American seminary who is about to hand back his dog collar and give up on his vocation.

At the last minute he is convinced by one of his tutors (Toby Jones) to enrol on a course for trainee exorcists over at Catholic HQ in Rome.

Despite being surrounded by the grandeur of the Vatican, he’s not really buying into the idea of exorcisms and feels that the people being treated for demonic possession are more likely in need of a shrink rather than a priest.

His new tutor (Ciarán Hinds) suggests that he go and visit with Fr Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins), an unconventional Welsh Jesuit priest and exorcism veteran.

Kovak becomes the junior partner in Trevant’s exploits as he goes about the business of flushing out demons.

As the film plays out there’s a twist, a fairly obvious one, which challenges Kovak in a way he couldn’t have expected when he headed over to Rome (but which anyone who has seen the trailer will definitely expect).

Drogheda man Colin O’Donoghue puts in a solidly good turn as Kovak and carries the film well. He’s always going to be upstaged by the well-worn dramatic antics of Hopkins in sinister mode, but he’s never acted off the screen by the senior partner in what is essentially an unconventional buddy movie.

Unblinking

O’Donoghue is a Hollywood newbie, but that doesn’t come across. His portrayal is subtle, and it really needs to be as Hopkins doesn’t so much channel the devil as channel Hannibal Lecter... again. The Silence of the Lambs was a great film, and Hopkins was terrific in it, but we’ve seen him stand there unblinking, spookily still and wearing a cryptic smile enough times now and it’s time for him to move on.

To be fair to the director Mikael Hafstrom, it could have been much hammier, especially during the exorcism scenes, and Hopkins stays on the right side of parodying his most famous – but only just, and not all of the time.

The Rite is based on a true story. Well, it’s based on the fact that priests do train as exorcists and that a book was written about that fact. Because of this, the film tends to go for realism over sensationalism.

The settings are exquisite and the photography and sound add a great deal to the film. The Rite is driven by O’Donoghue, but the man waving dramatically from the top of this star vehicle is Anthony Hopkins. There’s a stellar supporting cast in the form of Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, Alice Braga and Rutger Hauer, but with Hopkins doing his Hannibal Lecter party piece there’s no room for them to go beyond providing cameo appearances.

What’s particularly lacking is pace or any real sense of menace. When it comes to exorcism-related films, it’s always going to be hard to beat The Exorcist. The cast and crew of The Rite have a good go and there are a couple of times where you’ll jump, and The Rite won’t have you looking at your watch, but you’re unlikely to come out of the cinema feeling thrilled and chilled.

Nick Bradshaw

You can read our interview with Colin O'Donoghue, star of The Rite, here.