Review: Al Pacino's weird accent is the best and worst thing about ‘The Ritual'

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

Al Pacino loves to do accents, and it's the one thing he's not good at. For 'The Ritual,' in which he plays an exorcist, he speaks in a piping little voice, with an accent that is completely unplaceable, but which we later find out is German.
It's the worst and best thing in the movie.
It's the worst because it's ridiculous, but it's the best because it's both hilarious and ridiculous, and also because — and this is the kind of paradox often associated with great actors — he somehow makes his bizarre choices work. Pacino integrates the voice and accent into a distinct characterization, which, though far from ideal, has its own weird integrity.
We can well imagine that, as an independent director whose previous films have never had a major release, co-screenwriter David Midell was in no position to tell Pacino, 'Lose the accent' — he might have lost Pacino. But ultimately, Midell did the right thing to let the actor have his way.
Pacino plays the real-life Catholic priest, Theophilus Riesinger, a German immigrant who conducted what is believed to be the best documented exorcism in history, that of Emma Schmidt in Iowa. The movie changes some things. In real life, there were two exorcisms, separated by 16 years, and Emma was 46 when the process was completed in 1928. Here, there's just one exorcism, and Emma (Abigail Cowen) is a young woman in her 20s.
Emma's got some problems. At the start of the movie, her face is blotchy, and she does a lot of writhing in bed while saying rude things in an unnaturally deep voice. A Catholic bishop decides that an exorcism needs to take place, and he orders Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) to host the big event at his church and to aid Theophilus, the exorcist, in every way possible.
The second funniest thing about 'The Ritual' is the performance of Stevens, who goes through most of the movie looking completely confused. At first, you think he's thrown off by Pacino's accent. Later, we realize that Father Steiger is suffering from spiritual doubt to a degree that's almost absurd.
Stevens is tasked with playing a fellow who can be in the company of a possessed woman — as she lies there growling while objects fly around the room — and walk out saying, 'I think she might be suffering from a physical ailment.'
Despite moments of unintentional humor, 'The Ritual' has an appealing gravity about it, which probably derives from its adherence to the historical record. Most movies about exorcisms forget the victim and dramatize the conflict between the demons and the exorcist. But 'The Ritual' emphasizes Emma's torment and, in between exorcism sessions, shows Theophilus and the attending nuns treating her with the tenderness one might give a sick person.
More than any other exorcism movie I've seen, 'The Ritual' gives you a sense that, if something like this happened, it would probably happen in exactly this way.
Unfortunately, the one thing Midell can't overcome is the ultimately formulaic nature of the genre. Things start bad and get exponentially worse, but no matter what happens, we always know the ending.