Dogma (15) Film Review
Dir: Kevin Smith, US, 1999, 129 mins
Cast: Linda Fiorentino, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock
Review by Carol Allen
Not being religious myself, I just found it very funny, but was then surprised when I met Smith for an interview, to find he was , and probably still is, a devout Catholic. But it’s God he loves, not, as he put it, “the trappings and symbols of the Church, which we do have a bit of fun with”. His God, he told me, has a sense of humour. It’s a “bit of fun”, humour, which still works for today, which is why the film has been re-released in a spanking remastered 4K restored print.
The story concerns two smart talking, fallen angels, Bartleby and Loki, played by a now impossibly young looking Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. They were banished from Heaven by God but have now found a loophole, which will get them back into Paradise. That would however destroy the infallibility of God and therefore result in the destruction of humanity. Oh dear!
So God sends the angel Metatron (Alan Rickman) to brief Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) a disenchanted lapsed Catholic, on how to foil the plan. She has been chosen because she is the last living descendent of Jesus Christ – wonder how that came about? To reassure her, after his dramatic appearance in her bedroom encased in a pillar of fire, that he is not a bad guy out to rape her, the deliciously grumpy Metatron graphically demonstrates that as an angel he has no genitals.
To help her in her mission, Bethany is given two prophets, in the form of the slacker team, whom we’ve met before in previous films, of Jay and Silent Bob, (Jason Mewes and Smith himself), plus motor mouth Chris Rock as Rufus, the 13th Apostle, still mightily pissed off that he was left out of the Bible because he was black. Trying to foil the rescue plan is Azrael (Jason Lee) and his trio of wicked yobs, who go round beating up victims on command. Oh, and God puts in a couple of small part appearances too.
The film is totally irreverent with brilliant dialogue that is still rib achingly funny and full of enough bad language, violence and sexy talk to give a sheltered nun several heart attacks. I suspect God, if he/she exists, will still find it funny too. That is provided Smith is correct in his belief that God has a sense of humour.
