Blessed will undoubtedly take a lot of flack for being a rip-off of Rosemary's Baby. These flack throwers will have missed the whole point. Blessed isn't a ripoff, it's what has come to be known as a re-imagining. And as re-imaginings go, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find one as good. Believe me, I'm just as surprised as anyone by this opinion - it's not like Heather Graham has been turning out winners as of late, and in fact, has been taking a lot of heat for being a flash in the pan. And to some extent she's deserved it, cough Hope Springs cough.

In Blessed Graham turns in a serviceable performance, true it's not a terribly demanding role (other than the bit about having Satan's baby) but she acquits herself well enough. James Purefoy portrays her husband with more innocence and less duplicity than John Cassavettes played the nervous father so many years ago, which added to the film, because it kept you guessing longer. In Rosemary's Baby you knew the husband was in on it, in Blessed you're not altogether sure. In Blessed, however, Purefoy plays a novelist instead of an actor - but his career is given a similar shot in the arm once he has been tapped to serve as the surrogate daddy to "young scratch."

When you watch Rosemary's Baby these days - especially with a younger audience, it comes of a bit quaint and stuffy, and basically all Blessed has done is dressed-up the story to play to a younger, more modern audience, and in that sense I think it works remarkably well. I didn't know, going in that Blessed was going to be a refurbished version of Polanski's classic (I should have guessed it by the DVD cover) but once it became clear that this wasn't a knock-off, but a retelling I accepted it and was quite impressed.

I have to say that I really expected the film to suck, and as it progressed I kept thinking, "okay, when is this going to start to suck?" It really never did I'm quite surprised to say. Elements of the story have been changed to stay apace with new advancements in technology, and it's by no means a note-for-note remake, but the basic story remains well intact. Andy Serkis (Gollum) plays an Italian priest who basically keeps tabs on the institute that is in the business of bring Satan back to earth as a bouncing baby, and yet his identity and agenda is kept well in the shadows until late in the film.

When I read Stella Stevens' name in the opening credits, my suspicions that this was going to be another second-rate occult film were running high, but amazingly enough she too turns in an effective performance as a real estate agent in cahoots with the bad guys. The biggest departure from the original is the twist at the end - which I felt was at least as good if not more creepy than the bassinette scene from Rosemary's baby. I shant spoil it, because I would recommend that you rent this retooled version of a great old tale, curl up with a snifter of brandy and enjoy yourself.