Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Movie Review: Noah (2014)

 
When the opening credits rolled for Noah, a woman in attendance with me yelled “praise the Lord!”, which was then inexplicably followed by cheers from the crowd. It was obvious that a church group of some sort was in the theatre with me, made up of people likely unaware of the abstract moral complexity that is typically characteristic of a Darren Aronofsky film. I suppose the presence of Godly folk should be expected whenever one sees a movie based on a Bible story. Luckily for this congregation, they picked a relatively safe Aronofsky film to see, one that shies away from philosophizing about the backwards ethics at the heart of this Biblical end-of-the-world myth.

Aronofsky succeeds in telling the story of the Great Flood in a way which exposes its glorious absurdity. But he ultimately pulls his punches, seemingly out of fear of offending the Christian masses who will lead Noah to box office success. Inevitably, some of the faithful are going to be offended by what they see here regardless, but if the theatre I was in is any indication of how the public will react, many of the God-fearing are going to feel vindicated by this holy adaptation.