***The Kingdom of God is within you and around you*** A hedonistic hair stylist in Pittsburgh (Patricia Arquette) experiences stigmata, the manifestations of the various wounds of Christ, which compels the Vatican to send an investigator (Gabriel Byrne). “Stigmata” (1999) is Christian-oriented mystery/horror, coming across as a meshing of the tone of “Eye of the Beholder” (1998) and the themes of “The Seventh Sign” (1988). But also brings to mind the contemporaneous “End of Days” (1999), albeit more rooted in drama than overblown action thrills. “The Mothman Prophecies” (2002) is another reference point, but the brilliance of the eerie “Mothman” was its confidence in understatement whereas “Stigmata” overdoes it in some sequences, I guess to appeal to those with ADHD. Nevertheless, director Rupert Wainwright knows how to make a flashy, good-looking flick. The simple-yet-profound moral at the end makes it even better and I agree with it wholeheartedly. The film runs 1 hour, 43 minutes. GRADE: B+/A
