Stigmata

Plot synopsis:
A man walks into a church that is filled with worshipers, all holding candles and staring at a sculpture at the front altar. He steps forward and observes a white statue of the Virgin Mary, with two streams of red tears flowing out of its eyes. As another priest greets him, you learn that the man is Father Andrew Kiernan, an investigator sent from the Vatican to determine the validity of divine occurrences. The priest explains to Father Kiernan that the tears began flowing when Father Almedia died; his body still on display in a coffin to the side of the statue. While Father Kiernan takes pictures and samples of the liquid, a small young boy steals the rosary wrapped around Father Almedia's hands in the coffin.In a local market, the boy sells the rosary to an older white woman, while a local stall vendor warns them that it isn't right to steal from the dead.In Pittsburg, Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) lives a fast and free lifestyle, working at a hair salon and partying with her friends at clubs. After a long night of partying, she wakes up to a phone call from her mother. Her mom was the lady at the Brazilian market, and had sent Frankie a package of trinkets and gifts from her travels - the rosary among the presents. Frankie gives the gifts a cursory look, and stares at the rosary after she hangs up the phone. While examining the rosary, she suddenly feels extremely nauseous and vomits.Meeting up with her friend before they head to work, they both consider the possibility that Frankie is pregnant. After a day at the salon, Frankie relaxes at home in a hot bath. Suddenly, a dove flies frantically around her apartment, and Frankie is suddenly thrown under the water in the bath, struggling with an unseen force. Flashes between nails being driving into a man's wrist, and wounds developing on Frankie's fill the screen.Her friend finds her at home in the bath with blood everywhere, and rushes her to the hospital. While a surgeon attempts to sew up the two wounds, she explains that they look like they were done by a single sharp object driven through her wrists. The staff believes they are self-inflicted, though Frankie denies it.Back in Rome, Father Kiernan comes back to give in his report about a Virgin Mary sighting in a wall in Brazil. He mentions the statue that he discovered, but is quickly directed to drop the subject by the head priest. Frustrated, the Father accepts the church's decision.Frankie and her friend are riding the subway home, when Frankie suddenly stands up from her seat to confront a priest at the end of the car. She asks the man if he is Andrew, and when he replies no, she swears, and suddenly the train runs wild. Passengers are thrown around the car, while Frankie is now being whipped on the back by an unseen force. Finding herself again at the hospital enduring rigorous tests, the doctors finally conclude that she may have a case of epilepsy. While leaving the hospital, the priest from the subway meets her in the waiting room, hands her his card, and says that when she is up to talking to him, he wants to ask her about "stigmata."News of Frankie's "attacks" have made the papers, and the Vatican has decided to send Father Andrew Kiernan to Pittsburg, and investigate the occurrences. He is told to quiet the situation, and defuse any rumors of stigmata. Upon arrival, there is an instant connection between himself and Frankie. They have a coffee at the diner, while Father Andrew starts the interview. After Frankie explains that she isn't religious, and doesn't even believe in God, Father Andrew explains that what is happening cannot be stigmata, as it only afflicts the extremely devout. After showing the wounds on her wrist that still haven't healed, he looks confused, but still does not relent. Frankie storms out, frustrated that this glimmer of explanation and hope did not amount to anything.That night, Frankie meets her friend at their usual club. She is clearly distressed - feeling that God is doing this to her, and that she just wants everything to stop. After her friend tells her that she is losing it, Frankie storms off only to be halted by another attack - this time scratches and slashes on her forehead. Bloody and hurt, she runs from the club in the rain. She reaches her apartment door, and sees Father Andrew ringing her bell. He sees her, but Frankie runs. Father Andrew discovers her crouching on a car in an alleyway, scratching symbols into the paint with a broken bottle. He walks towards her, and Frankie stands up bellowing something in a foreign language in a man's voice. She collapses, and Father Andrew carries her into her apartment. Father Andrew calls his friend in Rome and replays the phrase Frankie yelled - the friend explains that it is an ancient dialect of Aramaic - the language of Jesus.

Tags: comedy, mystery, gothic, violence, cult, insanity, psychedelic

Review:
There's nothing conventionally religious in the experience portrayed here -- in fact, the victim is an athiest.But, having bypassed the conventional, the movie is only partially successful in bringing the experience of the stigmata to the screen.
It was suprisingly "non-hollywood" in many respects and very understated if you look beyond the gore of the mutilation and stigmata scenes.My only major gripe with the movie was the sometimes ludicrous way that characters close to Frankie (Patricia Arquette) seemed unwilling to take her seriously or believe her affliction despite the fact that they witnessed amazing supernatural events first hand.
Surely all the doctors, clergy and news reporters in the world would have been at her bedside after seeing the train video camera of this event?Anyway, this aside, many other aspects of the film were first rate and I was pleased the DVD version had the alternate and, in my opinion, better ending (subtle though the difference is).
Certainly I wouldn't say the film was anti-religious, in fact in many respects it adds weight to religious belief as the concept introduces the stigmata phenomenom to the audience.Overall, very good, 7 out of 10..
The film is about a young girl with no faith in god who begins to recieve the wounds of the crucified Christ, the Stigmata.I must say that I was very disappointed in the ending.
STIGMATA:  Well, this one is certain to be somewhat controversial with hardcore fundamentalist Christians and the equally dedicated Catholic, but I personally found the movie to be far from irreverent, and actually rather faithful in parts.
Though the film balances psychological terror and armchair Christian mythology, the movie manages to present a thought-provoking dramatic episode by clashing the faithful and the faithless, the true spirituality and hypocrisy, the sincere and the mundane.The film centers on the experiences of a young woman who is a self-professed athiest who manages to somehow be afflicted with The Stigmata, a paranormal experience wherein the "victim" or the "gifted" (dependant upon one's point of view) is afflicted/touched by God and with manifestations of the wounds Christ suffered at His Crucifixion.
These include the wounds through the wrists, the feet, the crown of thorns, the scourging of the back and finally the spear through the side.Into the mix is tossed a mildly agnostic Catholic priest/scientist assigned by Rome to investigate supposed "miracles."  Also blended into the story is a sub plot full of political goings on inside the Vatican and the attraction between the priest and the young woman afflicted.
So not only does the movie examine The Stigmata, spirituality, Christian myth, and the Catholic tradition, but it explores the inner workings of the Church (to a very critical degree) and the meeting of man, woman and God.
The integration of Catholic mysticism with MTV-era music video filmography at times seems nearly as visually attractive as Madonna's "Just Like a Prayer" video, though not quite as sublime.I'll give the movie 3 stars, mostly solidified by strong dialogue and exceptional performances from both Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne as the woman and the priest.
On it's own merits, the film manages to create a foundation from which the viewer is challenged to fill in the blanks re: the spiritual goings-on, but it loses points where it attempts to find cheap thrills and reinvent the spiritual-psychological horror portrayed in The Exorcist by turning an interesting and engaging look at mystic spirituality's interaction with the 20th Century's narcissistic cynicism into something more akin to the later OMEN movies..
While the hospital calls it a suicide attempt, the Vatican thinks she may be showing signs of stigmata and sends a priest (Gabriel Byrne) to investigate.This is one of the more clever "religious horror" films that I've seen.
Patricia Arquette is one of my favorite actresses, and I love her in this movie, or any else.Director is unknown to me, I must confess it, but, from what I have seen in this movie, it has some interesting views on filming, and I would really like to see his other works, or future ones.
It's a loss.Film has some frightful scenes, but in major, it's very good movie which gives us some new perspective on Jesus words that the God is in us.People who has no idea, or been religious fanatics should avoid this film.
The people who made the movie are not saying that it did or didn't happen but it is possible that these onlookers might have made a mistake on how Jesus and God want us to be.
If you can swallow that, then you should have no problem with the film's supernatural storyline, which sees Frankie displaying signs of the stigmata after becoming possessed by the spirit of a dead priest who is determined to reveal the secrets of a 5th gospel written by Jesus himself immediately before his crucifixion.Stigmata is a reasonably entertaining piece of religious horror nonsense thanks to fine performances from its excellent lead cast, which also includes Gabriel Byrne as miracle debunking priest Father Andrew Kiernan, and Jonathan Pryce as a Vatican Cardinal trying to protect the Catholic church at all costs.
Yes, the visuals are aesthetically impressive, with stunning lighting and some flashy editing, but they don't suit the material and prove very distracting.After much thrashing around by Arquette as she suffers the stigmata wounds amidst dripping water, flapping doves and shafts of blue light, and some weak Exorcist-style possession scenes, the film wraps things up nicely with the message that you don't need churches to worship God, for he is everywhere.
People who like to THINK at movies and perhaps even try to understand underlying or symbolic meanings should find this to be incredibly interesting.
(Or is this yet another movie cliché where the clue that might reveal all is only found when the story finds it appropriate to be discovered?)All this is quite pitiful because 'Stigmata' had a lot of possibilities and quality in it (and not to forget a very good Patricia Arquette).
In case you've never heard of the stigmata, they're the wounds that Jesus apparently had when he got crucified.In the movie itself, Vatican representative Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) gets sent to the United States, where punk Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) has been experiencing the stigmata.
The movie mostly appears to be looking at Catholic Church cover-ups - and this is before "The Da Vinci Code" - but the graphic scenes of Frankie getting the stigmata sort of overshadow that.
The film also stars Gabriel Byrne-a catholic preist who is sent from the vatican to investigate Frankies wounds.
The story doesn't even have any surprises-- I don't need to reveal the ending because the film does that for you.The visual storytelling is another thing entirely-- the surprises fly fast and furious, and all of them are unpleasant ones.
There may, at one time, have been a good idea buried under these layers of 'look at me' directing and post-production experiments, but it's long gone.As for the anti-Vatican press this film is flirting with, the Church would be wise to let it run it's course because this movie is just not worth it.Besides, too much attention might resurrect it from it's inevitable (and hopefully agonizing) death.
Who ever wrote this must have just learned what Stigmata meant, so they felt like making a movie based on what they learned.
In this the summer where the legend of a witch scared audiences to the tune of $150 million, along comes another Hollywood dud...This movie TRIES to scare us the way The Exorcist truly did, 25 yrs ago...it fails miserably...I have to give the movie just 1 star because unoriginality needs a great story to merit more stars....With Stigmata we get a bad ripoff of a great horror movie, done with no style...and of course LOTS of great computer effects!
The supervisor is doing whatever it takes to protect the Catholic church by preventing the lost Gospel of Jesus to come to light.The movie tries to scare us at times, but it's stereotypical fright.
Stigmata is directed by Rupert Wainwright and stars Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Price & Nia Long.
To be fair there's a good core story in there somewhere, the whole basis of stigmata (someone suffering the five wounds suffered by Christ at his Crucifixion) is very interesting, and frightening.
While both Arquette (non believing hairdresser receiving the stigmata) and Byrne (uber cool catholic celibate investigative priest) give it a good go as their characters are unbelievably brought together emotionally.
At the box office the film made a decent profit, helped no end by a huge opening weekend when the public went in intrigued by the premise of this latest horror movie ( it was released halfway thru The Sixth Sense's successful run).
It's later in the movie that Father Andrew is assigned to this case of "Stigmata" in of all places Pittsburgh Pa. involving this 23 year old hair dresser Frankie Paige, Patricia Arguette, who's not Catholic or even religious!
Related by a string of rosary beads!The movie "Stigmata" slowly builds up to its shocking and fiery climax when Father Andrews begins to question the actions of his superior Cardinal Houseman, Jonathan Pryce, who first authorized the investigation of Frankie Paige.
By Frankie getting possession of the beads, through a gift from her mother, she has become as much as a threat to the Cardinal and the church he represents as Father Alameida was!Despite a number of wild and gory scenes of Frankie's hands and legs bursting out into streams of blood signifying Jesus' suffering on the cross we, and Father Andrew, never really quite get what's going on in the movie!
It took a very realistic possibility (the church trying to save itself, damn the truth), and made it a thriller with the most scary scenes, beautiful photography, and good acting.
Strengthened by a career best performance from Patricia Arquette, and  good efforts from both Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce, 'Stigmata' manages to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Incredibly well performed by Gabriel Byrne, as the Catholic priest torn between science and faith, and Patricia Arquette, as the atheist hairdresser who doesn't know what's happening to her and doesn't accept it.
What is more, it's not a case of the usual "evil possession", actually Frankie Paige is possessed by a holy man, considered a saint, excommunicated by the church in an attempt to prevent him from making the scroll believed to be St. Thomas Gospel in Aramaic (containing the actual words pronounced by Jesus Christ in the Last Supper ...the kingdom of God is inside you and all around you...) known to the general public.
they are more interested in reviewing the flaws of the "science" of their views...this is just fiction, why compare it to the religious beliefs?the one thing i did get out this movie was that it enforces my belief that christian (and more specifically catholics) have the "creepiest" religion.
I'll refrain from that, because it doesn't matter whether you are atheist, agnostic, Catholic, Christian, or reformed orthodox Buddhist; Stigmata simply commits the unpardonable sin, not of heresy or blasphemy, but of being a film that is neither very engaging or entertaining.From this point on, words like "style", "content", "storyline", and "logic" will be used very loosely.
But somewhere, Stigmata's story, which should by all rights be almost captivating, becomes a tale devoid of logic (the "final confrontation" scene had some members of the audience laughing, so obvious was the lack of consistency) and its content is nothing short of a testament from the film-makers that they are, indeed, cutting edge with their religious beliefs.
And there is at least one scene that is simply visually striking (the subway encounter).But after all is said and done, Stigmata's poor direction over most of the film, it's lack of any coherent or even slightly better than shallow storyline, and the absense of any suspense hurts this film far more than anything else in it that could raise it from its own mediocrity.
Even if you are not Catholic (or perhaps anti-Catholic) and have seen the movie you can easily deduce that they were more interested in turning reverent religious individuals with no desire to suppress the truth and love of God into one giant conspiracy with corruption in every corner.
I am assuming this was simply just some poor attempt and giving the movie an "Exorcist-like" feel.
But I must say if you are a religious person I would really recommend that you pass this one up (hehe especially if you are Catholic :) ) I actually kind of would have sit through the whole thing if it wasn't for my sister with me here in college becoming ill at the sacreligious bombardment from this sorry excuse for a horror/suspense movie (and I don't think we were the only ones!) What morals and values would you compromise for a two-hour piece of entertainment?If you wanna discuss this post or the movie I would be happy to gpearson@ttacs.ttu.edu.
Basically, this movie is a wretched 2-hour music video, with no plot or acting, but good looks.
The movie still has a pretty good cast with Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce.
Modern-day hairdresser Patricia Arquette wonders what in God's name is happening to her, and with pretty good reason: after receiving a crucifix which was stolen from the deathbed of a revered priest, Arquette has begun to exhibit the wounds Jesus Christ suffered at the time of his crucifixion!
This film brings together three qualities: a thought provoking nature with a "truth" behind it, actors/actresses that may not be the best but collectively all have some of there best performances, and a satisfactory delivery that allows it to be entertaining.My rating of 9/10 may seem high if you look at this movie from just one aspect but the fact that it entertains one from so many angles elevates its value..
I'm not religious, but this film gets you to think about life in a deeper way.
This is a great scare for people who like their horror films original and free of teeny-boppers.
In fact, now that I think of it, this has a lot in common with "The Exorcist II: The Heretic", now THAT was a bad movie--may "Stigmata" find it's way into the same landfill where they belong..
This is called, "giving the plot away," and if you have half a brain you could predict what happens in this movie from there.After this we see poor Frankie undergo all sorts of horrors as, one by one, she gains the wounds of Christ, and of course there's blood everywhere, and lots of whining about "Why me."  Then comes Gabriel Byrne as a skeptical priest, and of course he's won over by her story and by her.
(As another reviewer stated, Gabriel Byrne does resemble the Father in Exorcist) Let's jump past all of that cliche nonsense and look at the "serious underlying message" of this movie, which seems to be that the Catholic (and probably every other) Church is so bent on controlling the flow of people's spirituality, that they'll stoop even as low as murder.
If you would like to see a music video about a "good" Catholic Priest possessing a woman (and deliberately causing her physical harm) to fight the evils within the Catholic church, then by God, this movie is for you..
STIGMATA takes the basic elements from this classic occult horror movie and turns it into a more of an adult, religious mystery fusing the ambiance of DARK WATER (2005), suggestions of CONSTANTINE (2005) and incorporating important concepts from the action thriller ANGELS AND DEMONS (2009).
I'm not really keen on catholic movies, but I watched "Stigmata" and I have to admit, I really enjoyed it.It tells us the story of Frankie, a common American young woman who loves going out, hanging around with her boyfriend and having a good fun.
But it is, as well, one of those films that once you've watched it, you want to see it again and again and it certainly gets you thinking...How is your faith these days?
The bottom line for me is it tells how its not a sin to believe in God and NOT go to church.The film tells the story in a sort of Exorcist vs Ghost style.
Stigmata is a horror movie not even scary enough to be classified as a thriller.
The terrible divine in a modern setting.Good movie to think about What-If, even if you're, like me, an atheist (albeit raised a Catholic).
This was refreshing and helped a lot in making the movie worth watching.All in all, builds the suspense well and provokes more thought than the usual Exorcist style rip-off..
I was very disappointed, the movie had more like a suspense/drama/church/religion  plot.
If you want a good horror/church/religion movie, I recommend "The Unholy"..
That is, where some movies lose an audience because the story, or key plot points, are too fanciful, too outrageous to even be considered, Stigmata was built around a metaphysical set of events that was far too tame, to juvenile, too much like actual life to be amazing, scary, or even surprising.
It was kind of slow, and I think most of the people in the movies with me wanted just to see Patricia Arquette get possessed, well...they did, but they also got a pretty good story with it.Gabriel Byrne was good in it, and so was Arquette.
The ending was pretty cool, and it had a good story to it also that I think a lot of people would be interested in.
"Stigmata" is NOT an "all-time classic."  But, judging by the "stigmata" on my arm (ie, "tense-moment bruises" from Darlene), and considering I didn't look at my watch once during the film, I'd say it was pretty good.I don't profess to know all of the Catholic hierarchy and theology discussed in the movie, but I'll say two things based on other reviews I've read here.