A young woman with no strong religious beliefs, Frankie Paige begins having strange and violent experiences, showing signs of the wounds that Jesus received when crucified. When the Vatican gets word of Frankie's situation, a high-ranking cardinal requests that the Rev. Andrew Kiernan investigate her case. Soon Kiernan realizes that very sinister forces are at work, and tries to rescue Frankie from the entity that is plaguing her.
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Reviews
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Crappy film
Absolutely the worst movie.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Stigmata is a delicate movie to the extent that it provokes emotions and opinions along the two extremes of the scale. One thing is for sure: your feelings are bound to be strong about this movie. As far as context and message are concerned, the base topic about faith and church is old enough; the conclusion is somewhat more fresh, though far from being as radical as intended. Anyway, if you do not look too deep into the theoretical side of it, the message is viable and elegantly presented. The movie shows the negative side of what happens when churches become dictatorships. As the meanings of the words spoken and written by Frankie, as well as the reasons behind (as well as who is responsible for) her possession become clearer to Andrew, the Catholic church tries harder and harder to silence Frankie and to continue making people believe that the church is continuing the faith as Christ wanted, regardless of whether or not a simple exorcism is done to cast out the spirit of Father Alameida to keep him from using Frankie to finish the translation... or by silencing Frankie herself.This already strong movie is further enhanced with the visual effects- so much so that you could buy this movie just for the incredible scenes. All of the wounds of Christ shown in the film are very realistically, enough so that many squeamish people may have to turn away from the screen during these moments. The the way the wounds are shown to occur (chaotically, and in sudden flashes) is incredible, adding to the suspense. Also, in the climax of the film there is one particularly rewarding scene which you might just have to watch over and over (it's too cool!) This movie is definitely and incredible achievement in filmmaking, with a great and intellectual plot expressed with beauty. Some people may not like it as much if they are sensitive to graphic scenes, or if they don't like content that has to do with religion. However, for the majority of people who see it, this movie is a greatly rewarding and enjoyable experience.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.
Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is in southern Brazil to investigate a bleeding Madonna statue. He wants to do more investigating but his superior rejects him. In America, Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is a single alternative hairdresser attacked by an invisible force giving her the signs of stigmata. She gets attacked again on the subway which comes to the attention of Kiernan.I love the brooding rain-soaked Gothic atmosphere at first but the movie goes nowhere. It's not scary for one minute. It's a lot of religious hogwash. It starts off with interesting tension but slowly fades away. Her attacks are slow-motion, pounding and repetitive. After the third time, I lose interest and it slowly grinds to a halt. It becomes another possession horror without anything new or interesting.
I remember I watched this film a long time ago. And last night it was on television and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It is described as a horror but I would say it is a religious thriller in the rang of Da Vinci Code. I like historical tales, Biblical tales and horror movies and this one combines all three in one.I really liked the scenes which are made of religious images and old scripts... It makes the film more artistic which I like.The beginning of the movie is very promising and dramatical, but the ending could have been better. Though I do believe that the message of the film is great. I am not religious person but nevertheless I think it is an universal truth - whatever it means.The two leading roles are good. The secrets of Vatican are always intriguing...so... from me it is eight!
A priest from the Vatican is sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil to investigate the appearance of the face of the Virgin Mary on the side of a building.While there he hears of a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding tears in a small town outside of the city.Meanwhile, a young woman in the U.S. begins to show signs of stigmata, the wounds of Christ.The priest from the Vatican links up with her and cares for her as she is increasingly afflicted by the stigmata.Her ranting and raving finally begins to make sense to the priest who starts to question what his religion has stood for for the last 1900 years.....Stigmata is not a scary film. In fact, it's quite difficult to put this movie into a genre. Unless there was a 'heavily edited, made to look like a music video type' movie, because this is what basically the film is, all style and no substance.But it's quite endearing thanks to the two leads.Arquette is Alabama from True Romance without the fun or adrenalin, and Byrne is basically the same character from End of days, but playing for a different team.And we spend the duration of the film watcing arquette get wounded and everyone thinking she is mad, apart from Byrne, who thinks she is revealing something that happened at the time of the Crucifixion.But Jonathon Pryce won't let him go deeper, because he's still fresh from bad guy duty in 'Tomorrow never dies'.It's a confusing film, but done with a lot of class, and a lot good camera work.If more had gone into the story than the effects, we would have had a winner, but we just have, a great pop promo without the song