Ron Howard, USA, 20062 out of 4 stars
Although there were protesters for this film in my local theater during its opening weekend, I have also read that some evangelicals are hoping to use it to lure ‘em in and then give them what they consider to be the real story. While watching this film, I realized what a brilliant strategy this is, because, while The Passion of the Christ literally preaches to the choir, this film appears subversive but really buttresses the church’s appeal, because the biggest threat to faith today is not radical reinterpretations, but profound indifference, something you find in greater supply in London and Paris, the settings for the film, than you do here, actually.
The interpretation presented here, which I won’t “spoil” even though the media already did so for me, certainly has its attractions. I wouldn’t mind if it were true, and so I can see why many want it to be true The filmmakers also want to imply that revealing this interpretation would change faith, while hedging their bets a bit in how they present this, but by this they just show that they don’t understand faith, which has not that much to do with kooky historical riddles.
It doesn’t help that said riddles hold far too much resemblance to the kind of deliberately-outlandish puzzle solving found in the Adam West Batman, in which connections and conclusions are drawn out of thin air. I’d just as soon intellectuals were ignored by mainstream film, rather than be portrayed in such a bogus fashion.
Other problems here include the tendency to spent several scenes getting us nowhere and then give us half of the entire mystery in a big monologue, Tom Hanks’ astonishing, mind-numbing flatness, the incoherence of the present-day conspiracies and betrayals, and so on. Come on, this is your blockbuster? You might as well just go to church.
Source: Sony 35mm print
27 May, 8:45 PM
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