Butler's Cinema Scene

Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene

“MARY MAGDALENE” My rating: B

120 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Less iconoclastic than earnest, “Mary Magdalene” is an art-film Bible movie that more resembles Pasolini’s pared-down “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” than your typical Hollywood sword-and-sandal epic.

It is, in fact, far better than one would expect upon learning that the title character is played by Rooney Mara and that Jesus Christ is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix.

The screenplay (by Helen Edmunson and Philippa Goslett)) and direction (by Garth Davis of “Lion” fame)  observes Jesus’ ministry through the experiences of Mary Magdalene, who is depicted not as a prostitute (that whole scenario was the invention of a sixth-century pope) but as an ahead-of-her-time woman  as important to the Christian faith as any of the male disciples.

Early on we find Mary serving as a midwife to the women of her village. She’s no shrinking violet; she rejects the attempts of her father (Tcheky Karyo) to find her a husband and outrages the menfolk by praying in the synagogue whenever she feels the need. At one point her family attempts an exorcism to rid her of proto-feminist demons.

So when Jesus and his disciples pass through, Mary is ready to drop everything and follow. Jesus so trusts Mary that  he sends her and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on a mission to spread the Gospel to Sumeria.

A lot of the usual trappings and incidents of a typical Jesus movie are ignored in this rendition.  There’s no Sermon on the Mount or miracle of the bread and fishes, no trial before Pontius Pilate or the Sanhedrin, no Herod. We experience only what Mary experiences.

This makes for a less flashy, more intimate retelling of the Gospels. “Mary Magdalene” is about relationships. One of the more interesting characters is Tahar Rahim’s Judas, played not as a skulking villain but as an baby-faced enthusiast who betrays Jesus not for money but to force him to show his true powers.

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peter

Needless to say, “Mary Magdalene” has a feminist point of view, though never at the expense of Christian tradition. This Jesus still heals the blind and raises the dead…there’s no attempt to provide a post-modern analysis of the Messiah or debunk the supernatural.

And there certainly is no Dan Brown-ish vision of Jesus and Mary as a romantic couple.

The film employs multiracial casting and avoids the Bible-speak of so many religious films — the players converse in more-or-less unaffected American English (though some dialogue is in Aramaic or Hebrew with subtitles).

Much of the film is shot in a semi-desert landscape (most of the locations are in Italy) with few signs of human habitation. All of which makes our first sight of Jerusalem — with the massive Temple dominating a high hill and Jewish pilgrims climbing to the top on a steep pathway — all the more impressive.

Biblical epics can go wrong in so many ways, especially if actors decide to show off. If anything, “Mary Magdalene” is under-acted. There’s no grandstanding here; most of the players take an almost documentary approach to their roles.

Even the two leads — Mara and Phoenix — avoid histrionics and actorly excesses. The result is that  individual viewers will find themselves filling in the characters depending upon their points of view.

Davis’ direction is perhaps too languid for the film’s good — things slow perceptibly in the middle section. But there are some powerful moments, like Jesus’ healing of a blind girl and the crucifixion, which has the heart-clutching beauty of a Renaissance depitction.

“Mary Magdalene” almost entirely avoids eye-rolling and wince-inducing “Hollywood” moments. It’s a film that should play successfully to both Christian and non-faith-based audiences while telling a familiar story in a new way.

| Robert W. Butler