|
"Divine
'Dogma'"
by Scott Mantz
"Dogma"
Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
Directed by Kevin Smith
Studio heads
must have a lot of faith--faith that their marketing departments
are going to advertise their films to the right audience. However,
nothing pleases them more than the free press a film gets when it's
mired in controversy. In most cases (the puzzling exception being
"Fight Club"), that controversy translates into big bucks when people
line up at the box office to see what the fuss is all about. That's
why it was such a surprise when Miramax head honchos Bob and Harvey
Weinstein sold the rights to Kevin Smith's latest film to indie
up-and-comer Lions Gate Pictures.
The Weinsteins
were probably feeling the heat from Miramax parent company Disney.
Even though the "mature" distribution arms of Disney (Touchstone,
Miramax, and Hollywood Pictures) release intellectually worthy films
all the time, apparently the blasphemous nature and rocky premise
of "Dogma" was too much for the late Uncle Walt to handle, and it
wasn't appropriate for the Mouse House. Well, it's their loss. While
"Dogma" may appear to intentionally stir the wrath of contemporary
religion, it is actually more of a profession about the importance
of having faith in, well, something. Sharp, witty, intelligent,
and hilarious, "Dogma" is a rare and unusual treat.
Loki (Matt Damon)
and Bartelby (Ben Affleck) are ex-angels banished to the armpit
of the universe--Wisconsin--for failing to carry out God's wishes.
They discover a loophole in church dogma which will allow them to
finally go home to the great gig in the sky. There's a problem.
This loophole will prove the infallibility of the Great Almighty
and mean the end of human existence. Help comes in the form of Bethany
(Linda Fiorentino), a faith-questioning Catholic who makes her living
at an abortion clinic. She is summoned by a seraphim (Alan Rickman)
to stop these avenging angels from passing through the pearly gates
of the Red Bank New Jersey Church and save humanity. Along the way
she reluctantly accepts help in the form of the 13th apostle (Chris
Rock) and a pair of sex-addicted prophets (Jason Mewes and Kevin
Smith).
The movie is
filled to the rim with pop-culture references and boasts plenty
of foul-mouthed humor, but that's par-for-the-course for a Kevin
Smith film. All of his movies ("Clerks", "Mallrats", and "Chasing
Amy") contain the type of dialogue that people, mostly men, discuss
when nobody else is around. Like Quentin Tarantino, Smith makes
all this useless banter actually sound pretty interesting. One scene
has Damon and Affleck rehashing an old bet as to which film would
do better at the box office--"E.T." or "Krush Groove". The muse
played by Salma Hyeck reveals that she was responsible for all of
the 20 top grossing films of all time, except one--"Home Alone".
One of the "action" sequences is an obvious homage to "Indiana Jones
and the Last Crusade", even down to the few spoken words delivered
by Smith film regular (actually, it's Smith himself) Silent Bob.
"Dogma" also
pushes the envelope in its casting. Who better to embark on a religious
crusade than a woman who works at an abortion clinic? When the 13th
Apostle drops in (literally) to help, he's convinced he was left
out of the Bible because he's black. Of course, the Divine Almighty
makes an appearance, but what a shock to find that He is a She.
Before you assume
that all these outrageous implications were thrown in to deliberately
get a rise out of the audience, well, you're right. But make no
mistake. All this is done to underline the importance of having
faith. "Dogma" is not implying that religion is a sham, but is instead
professing the importance of strong beliefs--whether it's in God
or your comic book collection. Catholicism may be a tough religion
that carries a lot of guilt, but it really doesn't matter. As we
prepare to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Jesus, the bottom
line is this--whatever your beliefs are, it's all in the heart.
|
