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“What did you expect,” eccentric exorcist Father Lucas asks his doubting apprentice after their first demonic encounter. “Spinning heads and pea soup?” Neither of those memorable moments from The Exorcist is reprised here, but that doesn’t lend The Rite the air of sobriety that it’s meant to, despite the “inspired by real events” claim at the outset. That factual basis lies only in a recent Vatican initiative to train new exorcists, which means that screenwriter Michael Petroni must accept full responsibility for the ridiculous sight of a possessed Anthony Hopkins shouting, “Cool! Whatever, dude!” in an intense Satanic growl. Unfortunately, that’s not the only laughable moment that director Mikael Håfström allows to destroy the gravity he labors to establish in the film’s early going. Colin O’Donoghue stars as Michael Kovak, who enrolls in seminary school to escape the family funeral home, with no intention of actually following through to the priesthood. Seeing promise in this faithless would-be priest (how desperate is the church these days?) Michael’s Father Superior (Toby Jones) sends him to summer exorcism school at in Rome. Naturally, Michael’s atheism is challenged by his experiences, particularly with Hopkins’ daffy, distracted mentor, but how can he be said to find faith when he’s offered such incontrovertible proof. Faced with such shallow arguments, Håfström loads his cast with heavyweights (Ciarán Hinds also appears), none of whom can mask the fact that this is low-level genre fare in fancy duds. —Shaun Brady

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Official Site: www.what-do-you-believe.com

Rating:	PG-13
Director:	Mikael Håfström
Cast:	Anthony Hopkins, Ciarán Hinds, Alice Braga, Toby Jones, Colin O'Donoghue
Release Date:	January 28, 2011 (Nationwide)
Running Time:	112
Distributor:	Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema
Genre:	Drama
Advisory:	for disturbing thematic material, violence, frightening images, and language including sexual references