SNMR 5.9: "The Name of the Rose"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "The Name of the Rose" (1986, R, 118 minutes), starring Sir Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham and Christian Slater.

PLOT SUMMARY: Some say it's the work of the devil when a bizarre series of deaths strikes a 14^th century European monastery. Others find links between the deaths and the book of Revelation, but Brother William of Baskerville thinks otherwise. He intends to find a murderer by using fact and reason - the tools of heresy.

MY OPINION: Just as I remembered it. A decent movie but unmercifully slow.

Sir Sean Connery, as Brother William, gives his usual fine performance and we get to see a very young Christian Slater who plays Adso, a young aide to the sleuthing cleric who is on the verge of a sexual and intellectual awakening. F. Murray Abraham is arrogance incarnate as the Inquisitor. The supporting cast is otherwise good, but largely unknown. I've never read Umberto Eco's bestseller, so I can't say if this film is a compelling adaptation of the source novel or one that changes things for the sake of the big screen. I like that director Jean-Jacques Annaud filmed this moody mystery at an actual 12^th century monastery, which helps give the story a dark realistic atmosphere, instead of using sound stages. It's almost like the setting becomes an additional character.

This movie, while a fictional story, does a good job of underscoring the power of the medieval church, when the common man did not know how to read and were kept ignorant so the clergy could keep their power and corrupt the masses.

**½ out of *****