I had high hopes for the new movie about the early life of the Blessed Virgin — “Mary” — which was just released by Netflix. As mentioned in a previous article, the trailer boded well.
Mary has a good cast, led by Sir Anthony Hopkins, though the other actors are not well known. It is visually stunning with beautiful cinematography, locations & costumes. It had the potential of being a wonderful representation of the early life of Mary, but..!
…Netflix made an action movie!
The best comparison I can make — though never having seen the full Cameron movie! — is with Titanic! Mary is, in essence, a “historical-fiction movie.” It has true historical threads woven through fictional dialogue, fictional action pieces and a ‘love-story’ of Joseph & Mary.
Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus riding through fire, on a thoroughbred horse!
I believe that they were attempting to produce a serious movie with big screen attraction. Unfortunately, they took far too much “poetic licence” in an attempt to make it mass marketable. The end result is an unacceptable portrayal of the events, which verges at being disrespectful. (I do not consider it to be sacrilegious because it seems to have been produced with good intent.)
It does get a bit silly! They made Joseph into a swashbuckling hero as he steals a sword from a Centurion and runs it through the demon carrying away the unconscious Mary. What the actual…?? Then the outcome between Joseph and the 3 soldiers goes totally unexplained…Okie Dokie! (Also I am not sure how he skewered the demon without slicing into Mary…)
It is harder to stomach the deliberate alteration of biblical text as we know it relating to essential events such as the Visitation of Archangel Gabriel. (And let’s not talk about the portrayal of Gabriel…euwww!)
The disconcerting stare of Archangel Gabriel!
Another major peeve for Catholics should be how they portrayed Mary as having a naturally painful birth. Catholic teaching — from the ordinary Magisterium — is that the birth of Jesus was painless as a consequence of Mary’s holiness.
Before seeing the movie, I had heard hints about the ‘romantic relationship’ between Mary and Joseph. There is good news here: I do not recall even seeing them kiss on screen! The portrayal of Joseph’s relationship with Mary is what I believe it would/should be — that he was completely smitten by Mary and totally committed to the Holy Family!
There were initial objections on social media to a Jewish Israeli playing the role of Mary. Noa Cohen was reasonable for the role, if not very expressive. What was not portrayed at all well was Mary’s inner grace, peace and joy which I think most of us expect she radiated. They showed a young Mary full of laughter and happiness — the older Mary was kind, but had lost her inner joy.
Cast & Crew
Sir Hopkins did a great job on portraying the malevolence of a psychotic & psychopathic Herod. He did so with his usual panache of his curiously understated overacting — I know, I know: it sounds contradictory!
Ori Pfeffer (Joachim) seems familiar, but many of the other actors are essentially new. Yes, they play historical figures but the intense looks and facial expressions got a little stale. Cohen showed extreme emotion with a fluttery eyelid or twitchy cheek…repeatedly! Salome floated around Herod’s palace without any significant role other than as some sort of eye-candy (but not new-world trashy.) The young Joseph, played by Ido Tako, has the role of the love-smitten hero leading him to rescue Mary from stoning; a demon; soldiers; marauders and a burning house, amongst other adventures! We love Joseph, but just…wow!
Director D. J. Caruso’s bio shows that he is Italian Catholic but I could not find the religion of the writer Timothy Michael Hayes.
Reviews
Movie critic Casey Chong summarized Mary in one sentence:
The scores on Rotten Tomatoes are underwhelming.
Score on Rotten Tomatoes: 10 December 2024
One excellent Catholic review I found is by Joseph Pronechen in National Catholic Register from 5# December. His kind conclusion is:
For all of its invented events that can leave viewers unclear about all the real facts, Mary does strive to treat Mary with reverence in presenting her early life — and hopefully will prompt people to want to learn more about the real Mary.
Bloopers
One that really stands out is the horse-drawn carriage, which was not invented till ~1200 A.D.! The carriage is pulled by a thoroughbred horse which later the Holy Family rides expertly…without a saddle!
Romans did have metal locks but I was puzzled as to whether Aristobulus’ Synagogue would have metal locks which you can clearly hear as he locks the door.
Joseph has ‘Mary-Sue’ level swordsmanship though-out the film despite being a common labourer. Really? And then…everything is so clean! Everything!
One of the many historical changes they made is how the Magi showed up the very next morning after Jesus’ birth. Ahhh…NOPE!
Final Comment
I hope that Pronechen is right — that the film will “prompt people to want to learn more about the real Mary.” In our anti-Christian society I am pessimistic about that. Most will just think it happened this way.
The final comment in the film does help to redeem some of it’s failings:
“Love will save the world.”
Dr. Kevin Hay
You can follow Kevin on 𝕏 (Twitter) @ kevinhay77