Kevin Smith is the first to admit he is "a pretty bad filmmaker" and "Dogma" goes only a little way toward disproving him. The film does, however, go a long way toward disproving the protest groups accusing it of Catholic-bashing. "Dogma" is a surprisingly reverent take on Christian doctrine that ends by assuring us that God is in Her Heaven and all's right with the world. Smith describes "Dogma" as a "kick in the tires of my faith," and that is an accurate description. It is also uproariously funny, intermittently intelligent, and irrepressibly wacky and original-but nobody could accuse it of being a cinematic masterpiece. That may just be asking too much.

Two exiled angels, Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartelby (Ben Affleck) have found a loophole in Church dogma that will allow them to return to Heaven. The problem is that if they succeed, they will prove God to be fallible and thus eradicate the whole of existence. So, a rag-tag group of defenders get together to stop the angels before they destroy the world. Their leader is Bethany (an effectively world-weary Linda Fiorentino), an abortion clinic worker who is going through a crisis of faith. She is joined by two unlikely prophets, a 13th apostle by the name of Rufus (Chris Rock), and a muse named Serendipity (Salma Hayek) who works in a strip club. The premise of Heavenly figures running around earth spouting swear words and looking like ordinary human beings is pretty funny, but gets tired rather rapidly. It is certainly not enough to sustain an entire movie.

Smith's technique, as he himself describes it, is to stick a couple of actors in front of an appropriate background and set them talking. Sometimes it works (when the writing is sharp and funny), and sometimes it doesn't (when the writing is leaden and driven by ideas rather than character). "Dogma" includes plenty of examples of both. There are many fine directors-Eric Rohmer is the most obvious example-who can have their characters sit around and chat for 90 minutes. But Rohmer's dialogue makes his characters sound as if they're having a real conversation in which you might even want to participate. Smith's characters, on the other hand, tend to sound more like mouthpieces for his own ideas. In "Dogma" some of those ideas provide food for thought: Why can't angels drink? Does God have a sense of humor? Or, on a more personal level, how would you feel if a herald angel appeared in your bedroom and announced it was up to you to save the world? But too often the conversations are a mishmash of second rate theology and tired sociology. It is telling that one of the funniest, most genuine lines of dialogue is an improvisation: when the 13th apostle played by Chris Rock is asked whether he really knew Jesus, he retorts, "Know him? That nigger still owes me $12!" Other moments rival Rock's comment, but there are also long discourses in which every sentence feels studied and overwritten.

Smith has taken a major step away from the convenience stores and bachelor apartments of his prior work. "Dogma" is his most ambitious film visually and is bolstered by some spectacular special effects-primarily the angels' wings which, from the credits, appear to have taken the creative efforts of a team of at least 20 people. The wings look great, but the poop monster that puts in a smelly appearance halfway through the film is just plain silly. Like the humor, the film itself spans a similar range from sophisticated and inspired to banal and childish.

If the Catholic League really wants to go after a Catholic-bashing film, they would have done well to stick to something like "Stigmata" whose message, albeit in tawdry, B-movie form, is that the Catholic Church is an evil entity conspiring to hide God's real truth from its members. Except for a little bad language, "Dogma" is a comic parable that follows the rules: the angels have wings; prophets and saviors perform their tasks fairly obediently; a splash of holy water can dissolve a demon; and God even wears white. And if Her outfit happens to be designed by Christian LaCroix, who's quibbling?

NEWSWEEK.com, October 4, 1999