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The Exorcism of Emily Rose was a heartbreaking ordeal for me. Why? Because the project had POTENTIAL written in large black ink all over it, but what happened? I'm still not sure. The ideas are there, the cast is there and the cinematography is there too. I'm just not sure where it went off into eye-rolling, laughably bad territory. I blame the script which saddles characters with the clunky and cringe-inducing bits of dialogue.
Laura Linney tries to anchor this unwieldy mess as much as she can with a reliable strong acting performance that is full of acting with a little a. It's a pity that her character's trajectory is so painfully clichéd and trite that it only furthers the eye-rolling. She’s a woman who’s fallen away from spirituality and wholesome values and into the perilous existence of being a single career woman. Excuse while I snort with laughter and disgust. Tom Wilkinson tries his best with what is being given to him, but even his immense talents can’t rise above this material. Jennifer Carpenter as Emily Rose contorts and twists her body into poses that look more like yoga than demonic possession. Her performance made me think that she was a young woman with religious zeal but severe schizophrenia, or some similar mental illness. She thrust herself gamely into the performance, but, again, is given laughably bad dialogue to say. What demon would say “Trick or treat, I give you tricks: One, two, three, four, five, six!”? And, when the ‘big reveal’ tells us that, yes, she is ‘possessed’ by six demons and one of them is the devil, instead of altering her voice into something disturbing they left it alone. The effect is that of a kitten mewing at you and expecting terror when it should have been like coming to face to face with a hungry lion. Shohreh Aghdashloo, always reliable for a strong supporting performance, is utterly wasted in a glorified cameo.
The Big Idea behind it all is unknowable, which isn’t a real issue, but what is the real issue? It purports to be the true story of Emily Rose, but a quick search with Wikipedia will tell you that is pure tripe. Science and medicine or theology and religious mysticism, which is it? You can only believe in one. It’s the argument that you can only believe in one that truly angers and upsets me. Personally, I have no real religious beliefs, nor do I want any, but I believe that there is a middle ground to be had. This film argues that no middle ground can exist.
It isn’t just the way that script egregiously makes its arguments, but the dialogue that it uses to make those arguments that upsets me so. What priest would say “The game is on!” twice? Once during the exorcism, seen only in pieces during extended flashbacks since this film is actually a courtroom drama, and once during the trial with each utterance leading to a combination of stifled laughter and cringe from me as I watched. And in a film that is trying to make me think and feel some kind of frightened and nervous tension unintentional laughter is the last thing that they wanted. Well, what do you expect with such a fourth-rate script?
[What ever became of the real Emily Rose? Well, for starters, she suffered from epileptic seizures long before claiming demonic possession, suffered from severe bouts of depression, hallucinations and heard voices. She claimed she was demonically possessed for over a year, received over seventy exorcisms and died of dehydration and malnutrition. The priests and her parents were found guilty of manslaughter, and the court found that she was epileptic and not demonically possessed. I agree with the court.]
