The Exorcism of Emily Rose

A lawyer (Linney) takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest (Wilkinson) who performed an exorcism on a young girl.

In this blend of psychological thriller and courtroom drama, Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) is a 19-year-old college student who begins displaying bizarre and troubling behavior; as her actions become increasingly destructive and shocking, Emily begins speaking in strange tongues and destroys religious symbols that surround her. Emily's parents believe that their daughter has become possessed of the devil, and the Catholic Church agrees to authorize an exorcism of the young woman. As Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson) attempts to drive the demons from Emily's body, the girl dies in the midst of the taxing ceremonies, repeated over several months, and Father Moore finds himself charged with negligent homicide. Attorney Erin Brunner (Laura Linney) is hired to represent Father Moore against prosecutor Ethan Thomas (Campbell Scott), who intends to prove there were concrete medical explanations for Emily's behaviors, including epilepsy and schizophrenia, all leading to a heated courtroom debate between the notions of faith and science. The Exorcism of Emily Rose was inspired by the real-life story of Annaliese Michel, a young woman from Germany who died in 1976 after priests in Wurzburg spent eight months attempting to exorcise demons from her body. — Mark Deming

AMG Review: The Exorcism of Emily Rose is the sort of movie where the fundamentals of jurisprudence get jumbled up for cheesily dramatic effect; where tight-lipped collegiate boyfriends suddenly unleash bathetic romantic monologues; where priests and rural housewives ooze manufactured dignity; and where a brassy career women is forced to learn Important life lessons by mysterious forces beyond her control. In short, it's a lot like a David E. Kelly television drama, only padded out to two hours and projected on a 50-foot screen. Because the aforementioned career woman is portrayed by the reliable Laura Linney, The Exorcism of Emily Rose proves far more watchable than it should. Casually steely one moment and full of self-doubt the next, Linney invests her post-feminist archetype with more humanity than she deserves. Yet Linney's performance is in service of such a hokey Big Idea that it's almost painful to watch her struggle against the script. The only aspect of this absurd concoction that deserves any real praise is the demonic-possession back story. The Exorcist is such a pop-culture touchstone that the filmmakers deserve some respect merely for avoiding most of its many clichés. As the titular victim, relative newcomer Jennifer Carpenter doesn't so much erase the memory of Linda Blair as sidestep it completely, portraying her affliction like a cross between epilepsy, schizophrenia, and an eating disorder. Too bad Carpenter contorts her body so convincingly in the service of such a fourth-rate script. — Brian J. Dillard