MOVIE REVIEWS: THE RITE

What we have with The Rite is another horror movie of the exorcist variety — with a difference. That difference is Anthony Hopkins, who plays the exorcist. “Mr. Hopkins gives the production what he was hired for,” writes Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal. “At least you can count on Mr. Hopkins … to deliver an expertly hammy variation on his Silence of the Lambs performance,” says A. O. Scott in the New York Times. But Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News wonders whether there isn’t “some kind of Hollywood exorcist who can help him reject the temptation of ridiculous films.” On the other hand, several critics give the devil his due. Among them is Roger Ebert, who comments in the Chicago Sun-Times: “I admire The Rite because while it delivers what I suppose should be called horror, it is atmospheric, its cinematography is eerie and evocative, and the actors enrich it.” And Amy Biancolli concludes in the San Francisco Chronicle: “For all the hellfire histrionics and well-timed jump scares, there is actual, admirable intellect behind The Rite.“