Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is in her twenties. She works as a hairdresser. She has a boyfriend. There are a hundred other girls like Frankie Paige within a mile radius of her apartment.
But unlike all of them, things happen to Frankie -- terrible things she can’t understand or explain. And though she has tried everything to make them stop, they’re just getting worse. She goes to doctors and psychologists, but even they can’t answer the most important question: why her?
At the darkest moment of one of her episodes, a chance encounter with a local priest is caught on tape and the frightening implications of the incident drive the Vatican to send their own investigator, Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne). Confronted with the powerful force that has taken control of Frankie, Kiernan immediately recognizes the true danger she is in and he must search his own soul for the strength to save her life, even if it goes against everything he believes.
(15 votes)
2.
The Messenger Must Be Silenced.
A lost soul has just received the wounds of Christ...and a shocking message that will alter history. Stunning performances from Patricia Arquette (True Romance), Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects) and Jonathan Pryce (Ronin) and a cutting edge score by Billy Corgan of "The Smashing Pumpkins" and Elia Cmiral make Sitgmata "a visual and visceral feast" (Entertainment Today).
Frankie Paige (Arquette) has absolutely no faith in God. All of that changes when she suddenly begins to suffer the Stigmata - the living wounds of the crucified Christ. Frankie's miraculous bleeding comes to the attention of the Vatican's top investigator, Father Kiernan (Byrne). But when Cardinal Houseman (Pryce), discovers that Frankie is actually channeling an extraordinary and provacative message that could destroy the Church, he's convinced that she - and the force possessing her - must be forever silenced. Determined to stop this deadly conspiracy, Kiernan risks his faith - and his life - to save her and the message that will change the destiny of mankind forever.
(15 votes)
3.
Gabriel Byrne plays Father Kiernan, a young Jesuit priest whose degree in chemistry makes him a sort of priest/detective as he investigates weeping Marys and the like around the world. Meanwhile, Frankie (Patricia Arquette), a rave-generation Pittsburgher, is afflicted with the stigmata--holes that appear in her wrists, resembling the wounds of Christ. The young woman's symptoms filter back to the Vatican and Father Kiernan is assigned to the case. The priest is puzzled by Frankie's atheism; usually the stigmata only appear on the devout (hence the age-old controversy of miracles vs. hysteria). Other manifestations appear on Frankie, and the priest's cardinal (Jonathan Pryce) is brought in, leading to political manoeuvring within the Church hierarchy. The film owes a large and obvious debt to The Exorcist (at one point, Frankie's bed scoots across the room and she levitates into a crucifix position) but to term it an Exorcist rip-off would be to short-change Stigmata. The premise and screenplay are more cerebral than in the l973 film, and the source of the phenomenon is coming from a completely different place.
Unfortunately, amid Stigmata's high-octane editing and slick technique, the chills of The Exorcist aren't there, giving the movie a sort of identity crisis: horror movie or intellectual thriller? Several elements of the film challenge basic tenets of the Catholic faith, hence the brief furore that erupted at the time of the film's release; if nothing else, the internal workings of the Church are shown in a very unflattering light indeed. Byrne excels as the sceptical priest, as does Arquette as the tortured young woman. All told, Stigmata is a rather uneven effort but one with a thought-provoking combination of theology and thrills served up in a thoroughly modern, stylish package. Fans of TV's Ally McBeal will recognise Portia De Rossi in a supporting role. --Jerry Renshaw
(15 votes)
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