The Pain of being earnest

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Directed by Scott Derrickson
Written by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson
Starring Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott and Jennifer Carpenter

I am not a naive person. I have been watching campy horror movies since I was 4 (lax parental supervision), and I grew up in the 70's and 80's, the heyday of the badly acted slasher flick. So I knew what kind of scenarios I might be walking into when I went to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose. This movie could be all-gore or no scare or a religious lesson or cheesy effects with overacting. It was none of those things. It was fine. Just fine. It was a pretty good (though not excellent) episode of Law and Order with a twist. The effects were minimal, but bigger or creepier effects were not really what the movie needed. This could have been a great psychological/spiritual creeper with a morality tale entwined within. But it just never got there for me.

This movie is all about promise not quite realized.

This true story is a great, if familiar, parable. A young, very devout, woman goes off to the big, bad city to attend college after living with her isolated, though sweetly close, and religious family. During her normal exploration of the world and college life, she becomes possessed by the devil. Or does she? The one thing I did like about this movie is that it never really answers that question. It allows the viewer to determine if she is being held captive by demons, or if she simply suffers from epilepsy. They even provide two points of view for every “possessed” scene: one as though demons got her and one as though she was having a fit. The courtroom is where the majority of the action takes place as this is primarily a courtroom drama. If you approach it like that then you might be pleasantly surprised.

Altering your expectations might make the movie more enjoyable but nothing will alter the fact that the acting in this movie is ham of the choicest cut. Tom Wilkinson does some great scene chewing, with his effort here more along the lines of Black Knight , rather than Eternal Sunshine or Smilla's Sense of Snow . He is tortured by his decision. We get it. Laura Linney is barely believable; her staunch anti-religion stance is easily eliminated and replaced by total faith, just because of some spooky feelings and a necklace. The over-earnest way Linney and Wilkinson's characters move through this film remind you that these are actors acting. There are also some bits (especially regarding a spooky necklace) that just get hammered over your head as though the director figured nobody would ever figure out the meaning – very patronizing.

The payoff is not as satisfying as I had hoped, and there are no real shockers here. I did not have a hard time predicting certain things (not the facts, those are common knowledge, but things like “oh, here she will say ‘why did you do that?'”) and just could not stop thinking about how much better this film should have been.

My score: 2.5 fangs out of a possible 5. Get this one on your Netflix, it could be entertaining. And you could start a drinking game; every time someone has a painfully earnest look on their face you can take a drink.

by MM
reprinted from BOFFM #2