Stigmata

 Stigmata 1999

• Director: Rupert Wainwright
• Based on the book: no.
• Cast: Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Enrico Colantoni
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Patricia Arquette – Holes, Human Nature, Bringing Out the Dead, Ed Wood, True Romance, The Indian Runner,
• Gabriel Byrne – Hereditary, Quirke, Emotional Arithmetic, Jindabyne, Wah-Wah, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Dead Man, The Usual Suspects, Little Women, Prince of Jutland, Miller’s Crossing, Gothic, Excalibur
• Jonathan Pryce – The Merchant of Venice, The White King, Wolf Hall, Woman in Gold, Hysteria, Cranford, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Brothers Grimm, Very Annie Mary, The Suicide Club, Tomorrow Never Dies, Evita, Glengarry Glen Ross, Timon of Athens, Voyage of the Damned.
• Nia Long – Alfie, Boyz ‘n’ the Hood
• Enrico Colantoni – Veronica Mars, Contagion, Full Frontal, AI, Third Rock from the Sun, Galaxy Quest
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: 28 October 2021      

       There’s a risk that this will be too religious for me, but the cast makes me willing to give it a try.

       The characters: Father Andrew (Byrne) is a Catholic priest who travels around the globe to investigate miracles. Most of them are fake. Frankie (Arquette) is a hip atheist hairdresser who suddenly starts bleeding from her wrists, and forehead, and back…stigmata. Cardinal Houseman (Pryce) sees Frankie and her stigmata as a threat to the established Church and determines that she must die.

       What a silly story. As an atheist I’ve always been fascinated by religion and people who believe in it. This cast deserves a much better film. Still, it’s rather cool, dramatic, and fun to watch. Once anyway. I don’t suppose Catholics like it. 

2 ½ * of 5