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Movie Review - The Reaping (2007)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Stephen Hopkins |
| Starring: |
Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, and AnnaSophia Robb |
| Rated: |
R (for violence, disturbing images and some sexuality) |
| Length: |
96 minutes |
| Genre: |
Horror/Thriller |
| Tagline: |
What Hath God Wrought? |
| Studio: |
Warner Bros. |
| Website: |
The Reaping |
| Release: |
April 5, 2007 |
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PLOT
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Hilary Swank plays a former Christian missionary who, after the tragic murders of her husband and
daughter, loses her faith and dedicates her life to disproving religious phenomena. Boasting that she's
investigated 48 miraculous occurrences and provided 48 scientific explanations, the only real miracle she
sees is that people keep believing.
However, when she is called to investigate a small Louisiana town that is suffering from what appear to
be the Old Testament Biblical plagues, Swank begins to reluctantly realize that perhaps science cannot
explain what is happening. Will she regain her faith and have the courage to combat the dark forces
threatening the community? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count. Swank's departure
from Oscar-worthy material ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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Are you in the mood for an entertaining, intense supernatural thriller with religious themes featuring an
Oscar winner who faces a crisis of faith? Well, good news - Signs is currently on DVD. However,
if you're looking for that in The Reaping then you might want to go ahead and lower those
expectations and prepare to not be blown away.
Responding in a post-screening interview to the movie's tagline ("What hath God wrought?"), God emphatically
declared, "Oh, I wrought the 10 plagues in the Old Testament, all right, but you ain't laying this
on me!"
I've decided that "it somewhat kept my interest" is no longer excuse enough for me to give a thriller of this
nature a passing grade. Slow-paced, non-scary, and convolutedly confusing to a fault (due to Swank's inexplicable
"visions"), The Reaping takes the potential of applying a Biblical story in modern times and wastes it with a
pedestrian effort that offers nothing new or original to the genre.
Admittedly, some of the special effects showcasing the plagues are visually interesting, and the atmosphere is
appropriately dark, but unfortunately, there is no effort to combine emotional impact with the CGI. Rather than
disturb audiences with a little eye-covering, skin-crawling aftermath of the plagues, the movie is content to just
check 'em off the list. "Drop some frogs into the bloody river!" "Done." "Good, what's next?" "Flies?" "Bring
it! We've got eight to go and only 60 minutes left to do it in!"
Consequently, this inability to dig beneath the surface of its visuals is what detached my interest. In other words,
the film just didn't grab me. Some strange dude in the seat behind me did, but that's a whole other level of disturbing.
I was never scared, I only felt brief moments of tension, and I felt not a single iota of interest in any of the
characters. Come on, guys, give me an incentive to care!
You can't even bother to provide a handful of pandering-yet-effective jump scenes? Where's the excitement? Where's
the intrigue? Where's the foreboding fear? I just sat there waiting for something ... ANYTHING ... to happen, and a
climax filled with a transparent plot twist and Shyamalan-esque "hey, here's what was really happening!" flashbacks
doesn't count.
Close out the festivities with a groan-inducing "oh great, there's gonna be a sequel" final scene, and I'm totally left
without a single compelling reason to recommend this even to the most hardcore fans of the genre. Thanks for flippin'
us the bird, filmmakers, we really appreciate it.
The Reaping is very lucky to make it to theaters. It's a Mary Stuart Masterson-for-Hilary Swank substitution
away from premiering on Lifetime. If I were you then that's where I'd wait to see it.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Swank read the screenplay for The Reaping just prior to winning the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the film
Million Dollar Baby.
- That explains a lot.
- Hilary's "visions" and "imaginings" in the movie don't really make sense and are never explained, so it's hard to distinguish
what is legitimately happening and what is a figment of her imagination. Perhaps it is intentionally vague, in which case it's
intentionally annoying.
- The Gospel According to The Reaping implies that avid church-goers don't mind blaspheming with language such as
God-d**n.
- David Morrissey, a real-life Brit, struggles with his accent. He plays a Louisianan, so the consensus is he was attempting a Cajun
accent, but unfortunately for him it sounded strangely Irish. Kind of like if an Irish guy had lived in the South for a while and
combined the two accents.
- I read through the production notes and honestly couldn't find anything else of interest to add in this section. Filming was
delayed due to Hurricane Katrina? Yawn. The director makes a comment on how there really are people out there trying to disprove
miracles? Thanks genius, I wouldn't have ever thought that to be the case! Hilary loved the script and working with the director?
Surprise, surprise. I'll mark out big time the day I read press notes where the actor admits to taking a role just for the
paycheck.
- Hilary Swank was in Red Dust with Chiwetel Ejiofor who is in American Gangster with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow
Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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As far as R-rated movies go, this is as about as tame as you can get. Language isn't bad - one "f" bomb and
one G-d**n are about all there is - and there is no nudity. There is one scene of PG-13 caliber sex, but
nothing is really seen.
Though the gore and violence are not extreme, I suppose subjects such as child sacrifice, earthly plagues,
and occultic practices may be a little too much for younger children to handle. Would any of this scare a
13-year-old? I seriously doubt it, but I guess it doesn't hurt to play it safe and go for the R rating.
Just don't go into the film expecting anything extremely intense and frightening.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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The effectively creepy trailer got my hopes up. The movie wasn't as good or scary as I expected it to be.
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THE GIST
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The Reaping is a simple story about a woman with lost faith who is forced to confront an age-old cult and all
the plot conveniences and contrivances that come along with that. It fails to capitalize on its potential, thus failing to
make this anything more worthy than a rainy day rental.
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