Movie Review: 'Consecration'

Consecration (2023)

Directed by Christopher Smith

Written by Christopher Smith

Starring Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Janet Suzman

Release Date February 10th, 2023

Published February 6th, 2023

Consecration stars Jena Malone as Grace, doctor who is called back to here adopted home in Scotland when her brother dies under unusual circumstances. Grace's brother, a Priest, is accused of having murdered another Priest before taking his own life. Naturally, Grace does not believe that her brother would have done such a thing or taken his own life. Thus, a mystery unfolds, who killed the Priest and who killed Grace's brother and portrayed it as a suicide?

Aiding or perhaps hindering Grace's search for the truth is Father Romero (Danny Huston). Father Romero claims to be at the convent where Grace's brother was found to re-consecrate the place and bring it back to God. He claims that he can't do that as long as lies are being told about the death of Grace's brother. So, he offers to help Grace find the truth. Meanwhile, Mother Superior (Janet Suzman) lingers in the back of many scenes looking menacing and admitting that she may have tainted the evidence surrounding the murder and Grace's brother's death.

Eventually we learn that members of the convent blame a demon for the death of both Priests. A Nun claims that a demon possessed Grace's brother, causing him to murder the other Priest and causing him to take his own life. Whether or not such a demon exists or if the death of Grace's brother was orchestrated by members of the convent is the mystery that drives Consecration as it proceeds through its horror movie story, one bubbling with religious imagery.

Well, it should drive that mystery but the direction and story choices give away the game far too easy. The whole thing turns on a Deus Ex Machina that is broad to downright silly. Essentially, one of our characters turns out to be able to be anywhere at anytime via, maybe, demon powers(?), and has been orchestrating everything we have seen since the start of the movie. We learn this when we are taken back in time via flashback that shows us everything that the rest of the movie was incapable of implying.

Jena Malone usually makes better choices than this. Malone is wonderful at playing haunted characters with deep, dark, secrets and yet, Consecration fails to make use of this talent and instead, makes her weepy and weak. It doesn't suit her. She ends the movie in a much different place than she began but it feels unearned. Malone is not the wilting flower type, she has a natural strength that she brings to most of her performances. Trying to tamp that down in Consecration via bad wig and weepy eyes simply doesn't work.

The film also makes use of character actor Danny Huston in strange fashion. Huston is best known for playing duplicitous villains. He's now reached a point in his career where just seeing him on screen invites suspicion that he's a baddie. I like the idea of trying to subvert that but the narrative is so confused at times that it is hard to say whether he was indeed playing against type as a hero to type as a bad guy. Consecration seems to want to exist in a gray area but it ends up muddy and confounding.

Writer-Director Christopher Smith doesn't have a high opinion of Nuns based on the evidence of Consecration. The nuns of Consecration are a high strung breed, shaky and constantly on edge. Each of the actors playing Nuns have been advised, apparently, to play their role with a comically brittle intensity that becomes laughable as the movie progresses. And then Janet Suzman plays the Mother Superior and her lack of energy goes the other direction and only highlights how broad the other performances are.

That said, Consecration isn't an actively bad movie. It's not poorly made. There are some striking images here and there. The production design and sound design is all of a strong professional grade. The dreariness of the United Kingdom setting fits the dreary story being told and adds a layer of foggy gray that fits with the gray area the story wishes to occupy between good and evil. I just wish the movie weren't so wishy washy in its storytelling, the moody atmosphere would have aided a story with a stronger perspective.

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