"The Rite" Is A Darn Good Movie

In response to some of the comments on this post over at Mark Shea's blog on the movie, I responded:

I thought it was a darn good movie.  The rector sent the seminarian for the training apparently as a means of showing him the reality of the spiritual world, not as some sort of mistaken "I think you're brilliant, lack of faith and deceptive behavior to the contrary" inability to discern.   
 
The movie makes abundantly clear that the words of exorcism are not magical, that faith in God matters immensely, that God has his hand on human events, and that the Church is real.  
 
Classic line--during one exorcism, the possessed arches her head backwards and spits at the window.  The camera refocuses so we can see St. Peter's through the window.  Young seminarian goes to adjust the blinds (he thinks its all psychological, so anything causing the patient to feel disturbed should be minimized.)  Old exorcist: Leave it.  Let him see who's in charge.  
 
There was a bare minimum of slightly off moments, very subtle things.  I agree better answers could have been given to the young seminarian's questions at points, but honestly, when you've got the capacity to just let the young man go and see for himself, why spend a ton of time trying to argue with a willful skeptic (after his first view of a real exorcism, he'd heard plenty to convince him the girl knew things she could not have humanly known) when you can just let him see for himself? And there is precedent for letting such skeptics be present at exoricisms--psychiatrists and so forth.  
 
They listened well to the priest giving them advice on authenticity and realism.  The rector makes reference to the age of nuns and the lack of priests, indicating that much of the Church is not going to fall all over itself following a Vatican directive and that there is a sad shortage of exorcists without going into a lot of intraecclesial politics.  

Yes, he performs an exorcism on a priest who's been performing exorcisms for a lifetime.  The arc of the story demanded it, it was well done, it was fairly authentically done, and I don't see why that would be a criticism.  You face off with the devil for that long, you may just get wounded in the process.  Especially if you go it alone quite as much as that priest was doing.  
 
I'd argue the deep wisdom is the extremely effective exposition of the vital importance of faith, and the very real power the faith of the Christian and the Church has in the world, even if the world does not often recognize it.  That's enough--you can't give meat to an infant.  This movie was an introduction, a pre-evangelization, a preparation for faith.  Why can't we celebrate that, instead of grumping because the culture can't stomach much more than that at a time?  
 
I have no idea why there's so little support from this from the Catholic blogs and commentators.  This is about as good as it's going to get from Hollywood for us.  If this one flops, it may be a long time before we see such a decent treatment again.

Go see it, if you're old enough and can stomach some nasty stuff (the main character's family owns a funeral home, and some of the opening scenes include him working there, as well as the usual exorcism stuff).  It's well worth it.

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.