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movie review - Stigmata

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 1999.09.17

This is a movie with Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce about an atheist who starts exhibiting stigmata after she's possessed by the spirit of a holy man who stole and translated the Gospel According to Jesus from the Catholic Church (and the Cardinal in charge of such dox, as played by Jonathan Pryce). The moral of the story is don't be in a movie with Whatsit... Seriously, the moral is never buy a rosary unless you're Catholic. I guess. A fair bit of this movie was over my head, I have to admit. People, surrounded by flowers, noting that they smelled flowers. Rain drops launching from every surface. '23' year old who look like 35 year olds in a time when the supposed 23-year-old's lifestyle is lived by 35-year-olds.

I'll never guess why Byrne + Pryce did this one. Money? Whoops, that's not gonna happen.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

Jorge Luis Borges