Mary Magdelene (Garth Davis, 2018)
Imdb
Date Watched: 4/21/19
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: Joaquin Phoenix
Rewatch: No
Full Disclosure: I am an atheist. I was not raised with religion and I have never read any version of the Bible. I cannot speak to how faithful or unfaithful this film was to the original story.
When I first heard that Joaquin Phoenix would be playing Jesus, I was less than enthusiastic about the news. But I thought "Well, if any actor in the world could make me give a **** about Jesus, it would be Joaquin. Right?"
Yeah, no. Don't get me wrong, I don't have any gripes with his performance or that of any of the other capable cast members, but the film as a whole just failed to engage me. As a non-believer, I carry no inherent emotional investment in Jesus, Mary, Peter, Judas or any of its other characters. I didn't care about them when it started and that hadn't changed at all by its conclusion. Its 2 hour run felt closer to 5 hours and by the time of Jesus's crucifixion I was so utterly bored that I was on the verge of praying for the film to end.
I will give some credit where it's due: As I said, the performances were fine. I also thought the cinematography was good though not especially impressive. But my praise - if you can even call it that - ends there. I think this may be one instance where I forgo my usual insistence on purchasing all of Phoenix's films on DVD or blu-ray. I don't think I could handle another viewing.
P.S. This is actually not the first film I've watched since my last log entry. I rewatched
Mandingo a few weeks ago but didn't bother to write it up again because I didn't have anything more to say about it. It's just entertaining trash. I also watched the short film
Lou, but didn't write it up because it's like 12 minutes long and nothing really happens.