Retro Raunch Revisit

STIGMATA (1999)
Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Dick Latessa, Rade Šerbedžija, Jack Donner
Directed by Rupert Wainwright
Released September 10, 1999 (Happy 25th Anniversary)
Father Andrew Kiernan is the Vatican's top investigator (with a scientific background making for a contradictory combo) who is in Sao Paolo following up on reports of the Virgin Mary's face having appeared on the side of a building. Turns out it was just a rust stain. While in the city, he inadvertently hears of a bleeding Virgin Mary statue in a church and visits. A revered priest, Father Paolo Alameida, has just died and during his funeral service, a young boy steals the dead man's rosary and sells it as a souvenir to a female American tourist out in the street. Anxious to study more, Kiernan returns to Rome where the Vatican are disinterested and hostile to his findings. High-ranking Cardinal Houseman abruptly orders him to drop the matter. Back in rainy Pittsburgh, Frankie Paige, is a young hairdresser in her early 20's (whose cutting edge salon also does tattoos, well before the merging of ink and cosmotology was prevalent). She is an atheist and thinks she might be pregnant (but isn't). She opens a small gift package from Brazil sent by her mother. It's the rosary. From that moment, she begins having strange visions such as a woman tossing a baby into a busy street, and starts suffering violent, invisible attacks. They are the work of stigmata -- Jesus' crucifixion wounds. When punctures in her wrists result in an Emergency Room visit, she is accused of self-inflicted cutting made as a suicide attempt, and medical staff discuss if she may have epilepsy. Another attack occurs on the subway when her back is whipped, and these lacerations are witnessed by a Priest who immediately informs the Vatican. When they get word of Frankie's situation, Houseman sends Kiernan to report on the case that is drawing uncomfy attention, that all the same is oddly regarded as insignificant.

Meeting her for the first time (via haircut), he is at first skeptical of the authenticity of her afflictions, and explains that stigmatics are the truly devout worshippers who experience this phenomena from their profound reverence. So why is party girl Frankie getting her butt kicked and hospitalized by these bloody assaults? [Maybe some exposition involving St. Francis of Assisi said to be the first true stigmatic, and Frankie's near-sounding name positioning her as a fellow recipient, might have something to do with it]. Her next seizure-like attack occurs at a nightclub with injuries to her forehead and blood streaming down her face, as if wearing a crown of thorns. In her apartment, Kiernan then witnesses her possession when she talks in a foreign tongue, in a man's voice -- speaking and then writing on her wall in Aramaic (the alleged language and text of Jesus). These observations further test Kiernan's already troubled spirituality for as he has become doubtful & disillusioned with his calling, there is an implied determination of him to restore his conviction and remain firm in his profession. As he steps up as protector, there is nothing miraculous in Frankie's plight as far as she sees it. This torment of Jesus' worst day is an equally torturous nightmare being visited upon her, and undergoing such a painful, terrifying and even humiliating ordeal, is slowly killing her. To her credit, she tries to maintain a normalcy the whole time, where others would have completely imploded at this stage from the inability alone to grasp what is happening to them. As the severity of Frankie's wounds & worsening physical harm increases, Kiernan's worry about her vulnerable condition becomes less concerned with proving or debunking any miracle, and more about saving her life.

Kiernan sends voice recordings & pictures of her scrawlings to a colleague in the Vatican, Father Delmonico, but Delmonico's warning of the translation indicating dangerous content for the Catholic Church, is overheard from a phone call to Kiernan, with the eavesdropped chat told to Houseman. Kiernan realizes something malevolent is using her as a vessel for an extraordinary life-altering message that threatens the very foundations of the Church. And the implications of this secret point to a cover-up, as well as a fight for Frankie's very soul. In another incident, she levitates with full arms outstretched as if on the most famous cross in all of human history [and perhaps amazingly, the scene is not accompanied by Soundgarden]. The 2 have an obvious mutual attraction. She flirts & makes passes at him, and he has charisma. But for each, it's more due to an intellectual connection in the chemistry (thin as it is). While she wants him in bed, he doesn't succumb to temptation. And seductive symbolism is laid on thick that even with sex on offer, their association transcends getting busy between the sheets. Houseman and some cronies show up in Pittsburgh telling Kiernan to send Frankie to the Archdiocese to be cared for, but the Cardinal has her prepared for the casting out of what they treat as Satanic chicanery. Kiernan meets with Marion Petrocelli who tells him of a secret gospel found near Jerusalem, reputed to be the actual words of Jesus which nullifies the need for the Church. Alameida had stolen the document and was ex-communicated by Houseman. Naturally, the bigwigs in charge would want this shocking discovery and its ramifications stifled. At any cost. Kiernan races back to the Archdiocese, throws down with Houseman, and offering himself in exchange for Frankie (it is Alameida possessing her), he steps through literal flames of damnation [Byrne in Hell?] to free her.

[Interestingly enough, Byrne's next film role was playing Lord Lucifer himself in END OF DAYS released that same year]. It is impossible not to find the landscape of STIGMATA familiar: it plays as a slanted Gen-X version of THE EXORCIST, swirling with resemblances of an innocent victim seemingly under demonic possession, and the Priest with good looks out to rescue her from an entity literally tearing her apart. Frankie and Kiernan are cut from the same cloth as Regan MacNeil and Father Damien Karras. Even the cliché of a growling beast with sexual taunting is not spared. Some pretentious, clergy discussions aside -- whether in Rome or in the climax of last confrontation -- yeah, STIGMATA has problems. What it lacks in being engaging, is just as lacking in Frankie's weak dialogue, and the rather huh?-logic of the fiery (and conventional) finale is muddled. Upon its release, there was some complaining within a few pious circles calling the movie anti-church, and the Church got their feathers ruffled causing a minor uproar saying the movie was anti-establishment. In its defense, finding anything here to be offended & outraged by is quite laughable. A theme of mysticism vs. cynicism manages to be thought provoking, as does the idea/forgotten concept of individualism being more important than institution. Alameida's spirit carrying on as a sinister deliverer is puzzling. His immortal true message for the removal of barriers between Man and God sounds simple enough in layman's terms, but the unfolding of events in direct relation to him are confusing & mishandled. It's unclear how much (or even if) he preached this doctrine to his parishioners while stationed in Brazil but now an invested Kiernan, and an especially indifferent Frankie are the happenstance tools of theology meant for her to house and profess this holy creed -- not through peaceful divinity but instead by a dark force of wicked belligerence, that incredibly is not 'evil' but is infused as such. Right.

And strangely, with Frankie as the 'chosen one', she really isn't; not in the sense of a deliberate intention seeking her out. But thus is her depiction nevertheless. It's by pure chance of receiving the rosary that she undergoes her agony. [Which in itself is creative license as stigmata cannot be transferred by object]. And her portrayal is a sympathetic transformation, albeit predictable: a lost member of the flock who by movie's end has changed almost as if gracefully reborn into purity. She has to endure excruciation before experiencing the blissful ecstasy of all sins forgiven. And nothing says love like a gentle dove. Also up front is how the movie's jarring editing has too much of an arty MTV feel for some sequences. With heavy-handed, slick splatterings of blurred/bleachy/muted/hued dream-like frames that onslaught the senses, the cuts of disturbing montage imagery of hammered spikes into flesh, and deeply marked skin from flagellation, look very music video-ish. Speaking of which, the movie was scored by Billy Corgan and the soundtrack features Massive Attack, David Bowie, Bjork, Chumbawamba, Sinéad O'Connor, and Natalie Imbruglia. Lastly, STIGMATA's end post-script is controversial for lending itself to conspiracy. There are just as many who will agree about the inference of corruption to suppress a real history and keep it from the public, as those who won't. An alternate ending has Kiernan back in the Sao Paolo church, unrolling an unearthed, papyrus scroll (Ta-dah! The sacred lost gospel) with the exact script Frankie had written on her wall, and him placing a framed picture of her on an altar, suggesting her death. With this final scene of the manuscript, what is left at the very least (whether you discredit or not) is still a post-discussion on modern religion through personal faith, reason, the power of belief, and ecclesiastical politics. Overall, it's a mixed bag but if you liked 1988's THE SEVENTH SIGN, you might dig this also as it makes for an adequate companion piece that continues the conversation.