Where's Linda Blair When You Need Her?

Hey hey, another quickie review. I saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose this afternoon, and it's something else. Loosely based on the true-life story of Anneliese Michel, the movie is quite different in that the titular Emily Rose (played by Jennifer Carpenter) isn't even the main character. She's like Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects, where she drives the plot despite never really being around. Instead, the movie focuses on an attorney (Laura Linney) trying to acquit Emily's priest (Tom Wilkinson) of manslaughter charges stemming from Emily's botched exorcism.

The film is a bizarre amalgam of The Exorcist and an episode of Law & Order, though it doesn't truly get into a groove until the third act. We never really learn much about Emily as a person prior to her possession, there's a subplot that goes nowhere after a couple of scenes, and all that camera shaking during the exorcism scene made my head hurt, but the movie is pushed by some awesome performances from its cast. Everyone in the cast does a good job, especially Jennifer Carpenter. Her screen time is limited and she doesn't have much dialogue outside of some Latin phrases and a mighty crapload of screaming, but she's very effective. Is Emily schizophrenic? Is she possessed? Either way, she's absolutely freaky. The movie is also aided by a tense, chilling score by Christopher Young. I hope that the movie's DVD has a music-only track, just so I can crank it up at Halloween and scare the pants off people. But when it's all said and done, I'm going to give The Exorcism of Emily Rose three and a half stars, and that's that.