I found this on the ground near the school where I work. There's nothing particularly wrong with teaching children karate, or feeding those children pizza, but I just love their slogan. It reads:"Making America stronger one black belt at a time."
Beautiful!
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
I wanted to like this film. There were things about it that were quite good. Most of all, Tom Wilkinson.
However, there were two problems with the film that I had trouble getting past.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
I wanted to like this film. There were things about it that were quite good. Most of all, Tom Wilkinson.
However, there were two problems with the film that I had trouble getting past.Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD
1. Too sudden a change in the main character: The locket scene drove me nuts. The main character, played by Laura Linney was an agnostic, strong on the ag. (I want that to mean very cynical, even if it doesn't) One minute she's smirking at the Father's warnings about the spiritual realm, and the next she's revealing that she's found a locket with her initials on it and she believes it means she's on the right path??? And the flashback of finding the locket was bizarre too. She is all in white, there is snow everywhere... just strange, it felt like a scene from another movie. It was so out of place for her character, I actually thought she was lying to the priest just to show empathy or something. We see the locket later, flipped over without the initials. Why? God knows.
2. The jury. The sentencing occurs right after the verdict. But I was a little thrown off that the judge was about to give her sentence when all the sudden, she's interrupted by the chairman of the jury, with a recommendation for sentencing. When did they come to concensus about THIS? Or is she just psychic? Does she know the rest of the jury would be okay with this decision? Why would they have talked about this before now? Strange, and forced. It's the judicial version of the "good guy doesn't kill the bad guy, but the bad guy then tries to kill the good guy when his back is turned, and some third party kills the bad guy" cliche'. I hate when films want to make a point or have a "hard to watch" moment, but cop out of it. This film does that big time. There's a host (excuse the pun) of other cliches in Emily Rose, but this one got to me more than others.
2. The jury. The sentencing occurs right after the verdict. But I was a little thrown off that the judge was about to give her sentence when all the sudden, she's interrupted by the chairman of the jury, with a recommendation for sentencing. When did they come to concensus about THIS? Or is she just psychic? Does she know the rest of the jury would be okay with this decision? Why would they have talked about this before now? Strange, and forced. It's the judicial version of the "good guy doesn't kill the bad guy, but the bad guy then tries to kill the good guy when his back is turned, and some third party kills the bad guy" cliche'. I hate when films want to make a point or have a "hard to watch" moment, but cop out of it. This film does that big time. There's a host (excuse the pun) of other cliches in Emily Rose, but this one got to me more than others.
4 comments:
so aside from the rating how does the story and treatment compare to the exorcist?
It's no exorcist in terms of scariness, but asks questions the Exorcist takes for granted.
"Is there a spiritual realm?" Of course the film leans toward yes, even though it gives occasionally compelling evidence that supports a scientific explanation for the events.
The real question is... "Why are we asking this questions now?"
We're 20 years into postmodernism, how many people are strict materialists and consider science the end all epistemology?
I think that Emily Rose was supposed to say something along the lines of "the spiritual realm does exist, but it doesn't exist officially (in law)." As a movie itself, it did strick me as a little unusual, but I couldn't pinpoint it (I knew it wasn't the subject).
On a side note: In America, why do we only consider teaching kids karate? It's considered something for kids to "play." We teach kids violent defense techniques (that don't ammount to much in real application with their strength), but an adult doesn't ever consider doing it. In fact, an adult would be mocked if he did consider it.
I REALLY wanted to like this film as well...so much that I did actually like it... until i watched it the second time. Ok, I dont recall snow in the film in "current" time other than that accident of a locket scene. You were absoloutely correct. My only idea is that there were a lot of scenes where something should have happend to make the scene significant, but didnt and that is kind of the way REAL life is... and I felt like the film makers might have wanted us to see the story in a realistic point of veiw...but snow and a locket out of nowhere isnt very realistic... wow, if this film condemns itself, than I am going to discontinue trying to make sense of it.
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