Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Kevin Smith
Written by: Kevin Smith
Starring: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, George Carlin, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Alanis Morissette, Janeane Garofalo
Produced by: Scott Mosier

The Nutshell

A Catholic woman who has lost her faith must stop two angels from entering a church in New Jersey or all of existence will end.

The Review

    Dogma has been making entertainment headlines for months now, ever since the film began production. Controversy erupted when The Catholic League got wind of the film's subject matter, and apparent intent. The film seemed poised to skewer the religion and make fun of its every aspect, forcing many livid League members to protest the film before even seeing it. Does the film use Christianity to create humourous situations? Yes. Is this a bad thing? Not really.

    Dogma follows the quest of Bethany (Fiorentino), an abortion clinic worker who is sent on a Holy Crusade by the Voice of God. The Voice, a hilarious Alan Rickman, taps her to stop two renegade angels, Loki & Bartleby (Damon & Affleck) from re-entering Heaven. To do this, she must travel to New Jersey, meeting two prophets, Smith regulars Jay & Silent Bob (Mewes and Smith himself), along the way. In her quest she bumps into Rufus, the 13th apostle (Rock), Serendipity, who is a Muse (Hayek), Azrael (Lee), a denizen of Hell who is pursuing his own goals, and even God herself (Morissette). This is the plot in simple form, yet Bethany's Crusade is really besides the point. Dogma's quest is to provide Kevin Smith an outlet with which to vent his pop culture observations, which are often hilarious.

    Smith has created wonderful anti-heroes in Jay & Silent Bob. Jay, a foul-mouthed airhead who never shuts up, consistently steals scenes, often just by subtly reacting to the dialogue between characters. While his statements often have no more originality than the screenplay for The Blair Witch Project, the things that emerge from his coarse mouth are as hilarious as they are unexpected. Silent Bob, as usual, has little to say in Dogma, but unfortunately his character is getting a bit boring because of it. What keeps Bob from being totally dull is the way that Smith over-does the heroicness of his character; Bob rescues Bethany from certain death, cries in the presence of God, and saves everyone from a disgusting demon made of excrement. The rest of the cast all get some good lines, but, with the exception of Alan Rickman, offer only intermittent laughs.

    The problem with the film is the reliance of the story on religious knowledge. As Bethany encounters one spiritual character after another, she gets overwhelmed by all of her new information. The same can be said about the audience. As each character reveals another piece of the religious puzzle, they are forced to explain it to Bethany, and thus us. So much time is spent on explanation that there is little time left for laughs, and thus the best scenes are the ones in between the revelations. Some humour is obvious (Chris Rock going on about the injustice of being left out of The Bible for being black) while some is original (The Voice of God explaining his purpose: God herself cannot speak to humans, since her voice shatters the human heart. They "went through four Adams before figuring that one out.") The film is uneven and at times confusing, though all is understood in the end.

    With Dogma, Smith continues to experiment with different film genres. From the no-budget Clerks, to the mature Chasing Amy to this film, Smith shows an impressive arsenal of different cinematic styles. Dogma uses strong imagery, which undoubtedly led to the Catholic League's condemnation. Showing renegade angels slaughtering a crowd with machine-gun fire, a God who loves Skeeball and "Catholism Wow!", a drive by Cardinal Glick (Carlin) to re-invent Christ, Smith demonstrates not only bravery but a clever wit. Smith also demonstrates a loyalty to his favourite actors. Appearing in their (at least) second Smith films are Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Matt Damon and Jason Mewes.

    Dogma is not for everyone. It will mostly please those who love comedians like Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo (who makes a brief appearance in the film), or the show South Park; those who enjoy cutting-edge comedy, willing to lampoon anything, if it will garner a good belly laugh. The film is enjoyable, but could use some trimming. Overlong with frequent comedic droughts, Dogma is unevenly funny, yet immensely hip. It is an interesting film, and shows that Kevin Smith has a ways to go yet before running out of observations on life.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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