"The Rite"

About two weeks ago a group of students and I headed out in a snow storm after the Mission and Heritage kick-off event for the Spring Semester to see the movie "The Rite." The sizable collection of students who chose to partake in the venture were not quite sure what to expect of the movie, but were well pleased even though they had to pay a hefty fee to partake in the adventure that the young seminarian Michael Kovak was going to take us on.

The movie began a bit slowly with an attempt to set up some character development of the young seminarian showing his struggle to deal with the reality that he had just spent four years (an unrealistic amount of time for priestly formation - it typically takes four years of minor seminary and at least 3-4 years of graduate school afterward) immersing himself in a faith that he did not believe in, and then jumped to his deaconate ordination where he was faced with the beginning of a turning point for faith in response to an accident which left a young girl lying dead in the streets.

Although "Hollywood" made quite an appearance with the inaccuracies of having a deacon perform an exorcism, the somewhat forced character of the female reporter who was to tempt the young, questioning priest-to-be, and other minor miss-representations of the Rite of Exorcism, the movie delved into the deep void that exists when one is raising the big questions of life. This film was well worth the price of admission, and will undoubtedly be featured at a Faith in Film to come, but it is still no comparison to the high standard of "The Exorcist."