Plot: A hot young atheist hairstylist, Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is possessed by the soul of a dead Mexican priest when her mom sends her the Rosary of Father Pablo Alameida.

Things immediately become weird for Frankie and she begins to exhibit Stigmata. For those not Catholic enough the movie explains that Stigmata are wounds that a very devout follower exhibit that mirror the five wounds Christ received during the crucifixion. No Frankie is not devout.

Then the Vatican sends its top scientific miracle investigator to, well, investigate and Father Andrew Kiernan (Byrne) meets Frankie.

Sort of quickly convinced of her miraculous nature he realizes that she has knowledge of some lost gospels of Christ. He sends the information back to the Vatican.

He later finds out the Vatican, or Cardinal Daniel Houseman (Pryce), doesn' t want the information dispersed to the world because it suggests that people shouldn' t go to church but become more like hippie environmentalists.

The Good: I like Patricia Arquette. I like Gabriel Byrne. I like Jonathan Pryce.

The Bad: This was the other Frank Mancuso Jr. produced film with Jonathan Pryce I saw this weekend. This one blew chunks. There' s a good reason it didn' t last in the theaters.

How a hairdresser lives alone in the super New York loft with a view is beyond me. I HATE movies where we have down and out characters that have lavish residences because a director is handicapped in atmosphere creation and needs an elaborate set. Like my buddy Cam said, the BTUs those candles generate could fuel a village in Bangladesh.

I sort of see what they were trying to do with the story but I just don' t see it. I never bought into the whole thing. Frankie is a trampy character, the kind of girl I' d like to hang with. She has a good heart and all but really, she fornicates, not exactly saint material.

Bottom Line: The director is the only person that should be stigmatized for this movie.

Rating: Boxed wine would ease the pain.