60 Second Verdict: Mary Magdalene
60 Second Verdict: Mary Magdalene
17 March 2018
Mara Rooney plays the distant and ponderous Mary Magdalene.
Australian director Garth Davis, who made the acclaimed film Lion in 2016, has taken the bold and unusual move to putting Mary Magdalene in the film spotlight.
SUMMARY
Mary (Mara Rooney) is an unmarried fisherwoman in the first century. She is accused of having a demon in her, for refusing to agree to an arranged marriage. Mary becomes enthralled by wandering teacher and healer Jesus (Joaquin Phoenix) and, defying convention, she leaves her home and takes up with his travelling troupe of disciples. As Jesus increasingly comes under threat, Mary supports and guides him all the way to his crucifixion – and resurrection.
AUDIENCE
AUDIENCE
Lovers of movies about strong, groundbreaking women who fight the power of a male-dominated society. The #MeToo and TimesUp movements have stirred up issues which Mary Magdalene is situated within, making it a surprisingly timely release.
WHAT’S GOOD
WHAT’S GOOD
Australian director Garth Davis made the acclaimed Lion (2016) but for his follow-up, Davis has taken the bold and unusual move of recasting an intriguing Biblical figure. Little detail is offered within the New Testament texts about Mary Magdalene and Davis’ imagining of her struggle against patriarchy and spiritual blindness does not claim to be faithful to its source material (More like Exodus or Noah than The Passion of the Christ). As such, Mary Magdalene is best taken as a well shot, well cast celebration of the female spirit. Plus, it’s excellent that key biblical themes of peace, the kingdom of God, and the equality of women are so prominent.
WHAT’S NOT
WHAT’S NOT
Despite being a hand-on-heart Christian, I don’t object to people radically overhauling the Bible’s accounts and figures, to create a new film or book or song or whatever. If I did object to that, I feel I’d be campaigning for artistic censorship that, naturally, could extend to censoring the artistic endeavours which I personally prefer. However, tepid and plodding Mary Magdalene leaves me scratching my head about exactly why a notable lady from the gospels has been turned into the star of Jesus’s show. Shifting Jesus to the sidelines left me with a lead character who I found distant, ponderous and forced. While its cool that Mary Magdalene shoots down patriarchy, most men on-screen are either dominant, patronising or dumb. That gets tiring, even as points about female inequality are made.
SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING
SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING
I love it when movies want to bring Jesus to the big screen. Always seems to be a golden opportunity to present something of who he was, what he did, and why. Mary Magdalene does give Jesus a fair bit of air-time and he’s clearly the intriguing spiritual leader whom Mary (and others) are captivated by. But increasingly, Jesus is depicted as depending upon caring Mary for her support – as if he can’t do some things without her. Further, Mary often seems to be teaching Jesus how to be, well, Jesus. As the good news of Mary Magdalene blares loud and proud, she replaces the Messiah she follows and totally overshadows what he’s about. The result is a radical diminishing of the importance of Jesus, as Mary is brought to the fore to appeal to the social interests of our times. That might not seem like much to some viewers but think about this: why is Mary the heroine of a story that also is clearly driven by Jesus’s life, death and resurrection? What did Mary find in Jesus that made her give up everything to follow him? Mary Magdalene dilutes any hope of viewers working that out, as it yearns to uphold her as an accidental crusader.
Mary Magdalene is rated M and is released on March 22.
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