Dogma

The best that one can say about Dogma is that Kevin Smith is trying to do more than simply trade on his highly successful brand of smutty humor (though there’s plenty of that here). Whether the result amounts to much is another matter. Trying his hand at what broadly might be called a religious satire, there is an evident intelligence here but it is unfocussed and dragged down by the tiresomely familiar juvenile crudities.  

As satire there is little to be said for the film. The opening scene in which George Carlin plays a New Jersey cardinal announcing a campaign intended to re-invigorate the Catholic religion, complete with a re-tooled thumbs-up “buddy Christ”, has promise. Similarly does the main narrative device involving a couple of rogue angels, Loki and Bartleby (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) who have been cast out of heaven and plan to return to the after-life by exploiting a tenet of Catholic dogma which God is bound to honour. There is, however, sustained development of these ideas..

Unfortunately Smith can’t refrain from re-introducing his alter-ego, Silent Bob, and his foul-mouthed sidekick, Jay (Jason Mewes) as the story wanders this way and that to what we know is a foregone conclusion.  Perhaps the biggest weakness of the film is that its main protagonist, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) has no character to speak of and hence there is really nothing at stake in this effectively pointless ramble to nowhere.

An unlikely Alan Rickman and even unlikelier Salma Heyak add a touch of class to a film which otherwise sorely lacks it.

 

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