I thought this was a pretty good supernatural thriller.it's not at all boring and the acting is very good especially Gabriel Byrne and Patricia Arquette,the two leads.this is one of two supernatural thrillers I have watched recently,the other being End of Days starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.i actually liked that movie more than this one for a couple reason.but I digress.lets just say that Stigmata has a a few exiting sequences,but i wish it had more.having said that,i will also say that the movie is not boring by by any stretch of the imagination.and it looked good.i just feel they could have fleshed out the main characters at least a little come to think of it,they could also have fleshed out the story a bit more,as well.despite this.i enjoyed the movie.for me,Stigmata is a 6/10

A priest from the Vatican, Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil to investigate the appearance of the face of the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. While there he hears of a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding tears in a small town outside of the city after the death of another priest. Meanwhile, a young woman in the United States of America, Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) begins to show signs of stigmata, the five wounds of Jesus Christ.For a movie that was just made in 1999, Stigmata is quite dated. The cinematography is good, but some sequences are shot in a pop video style which was all the rage back in the 90's and it gets very ridiculous at times. I'm not a Christian, but the movie is anti-church, but not anti-god. There's a galore of conspiracy by the church which isn't exactly news to anybody. There's a lot of symbolism here though. I loved the water droplets scene which was symbolic of a non-believer like Patricia Arquette's character getting baptized after she slowly started to admit there might be a higher entity (I think all so-called 'Gods' were probably aliens or advanced human beings). It encourages you to question and ponder about what you believe is the truth.The quote: 'the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood... and I am there, lift a stone... and you will find me' is somewhat similar to what the oldest religion (a very loose term to define it) in the world, Hinduism, which is rooted in Vedic tradition says - 'Aham Brahmasmi' - 'I am God' and thereby, everywhere, everything and everyone (trees, animals, humans, space among countless other things) has a God inside themselves and we just have to adhere to a moral code. I just find religions very intriguing. The main drawbacks of the movie are the music, the stylized shots and the very annoying Hollywood ending. Its an enjoyable movie with good performances by the actors though.7/10

Patricia Arquette plays Frankie Paige, a trendy, alternative young woman who lives on her own in a massive Pittsburgh loft apartment decorated with all manner of cool, designer furniture and ornaments. And she's a hairdresser in a beauty parlour/tattoo studio. If you can swallow that, then you should have no problem with the film's supernatural storyline, which sees Frankie displaying signs of the stigmata after becoming possessed by the spirit of a dead priest who is determined to reveal the secrets of a 5th gospel written by Jesus himself immediately before his crucifixion.Stigmata is a reasonably entertaining piece of religious horror nonsense thanks to fine performances from its excellent lead cast, which also includes Gabriel Byrne as miracle debunking priest Father Andrew Kiernan, and Jonathan Pryce as a Vatican Cardinal trying to protect the Catholic church at all costs. What prevents the film from being a more successful affair is the distracting style of director Rupert Wainwright, who conducts proceedings as if he was making a music video for MTV. Yes, the visuals are aesthetically impressive, with stunning lighting and some flashy editing, but they don't suit the material and prove very distracting.After much thrashing around by Arquette as she suffers the stigmata wounds amidst dripping water, flapping doves and shafts of blue light, and some weak Exorcist-style possession scenes, the film wraps things up nicely with the message that you don't need churches to worship God, for he is everywhere. Oh, and the notion that the Catholic church is a massively corrupt organisation heavily involved in all manner of conspiracies. Nothing new there then.

Another Exorcist? No, this is actually watchable. (Exorcist: 40 minutes - nothing happens and that nothing happens very boringly. Then girl urinates, vomits, is potty-mouthed, there's lot of medical examinations and it all ends with silly but unentertaing exorcism scene which comes dangerously close to parody commercial which I saw in TV years ago. And yes, book is even worse dreck - it is nothing but possessed Regan's bodily functions!) In Stigmata, script throws flowers, candles and Catholic imagery for good-looking (and yes, self-consciously stylish) effect with controversy-begging storyline - there's conspiracy theories involving Catholic Church, priest hero falling for possessed, stigmatized heroine etc. Catholic Church disliked it, so did critics, but I enjoyed the ride.