REVIEW: Noah

Courtesy of Paramount

Since Noah opened a couple of weeks ago, the film has suffered a precipitous drop in ticket sales, mostly because the curiosity factor has evaporated and word-of-mouth hasn’t been kind. That’s likely because of viewers who didn’t know what they were getting into when they bought a ticket. Anyone familiar with director Darren Aronofsky’s previous work understands he’s not exactly a mainstream filmmaker.

His take on everyone’s favorite Biblical zookeeper is no different. It’s weird, visually stunning and sometimes off-putting, even for those going in with an open mind. That shouldn’t come as a surprise: from the project’s inception, he’s made it abundantly clear that the flick isn’t a Sunday school lesson.

Even though I had a few issues with Aronofsky’s most ambitious film to date (mostly plot stuff that I can’t get into for spoiler reasons), I’m still an admirer. This has been a dream project for him since he was a kid, and I’m all for directors who take chances instead of playing it safe. His vision truly comes to life in the narrative’s visual depiction of the creation story, the antediluvian version of the world’s animals and the apocalyptic flood.

Russell Crowe is commanding (and often scary) as Noah, and the rest of the cast – though their performances sometimes come dangerously close to camp – is also impressive. Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone and Emma Watson all make the film worth recommending.

Still, I acknowledge that Aronofsky’s interpretation is divisive. Viewers need to understand several key factors going in. First, this isn’t a God’s Not Dead situation, in which the production is catering to an exclusively Christian audience. Aronofsky doesn’t start with a sermon and then construct a story around it. Instead, he’s interested in an artistic depiction of Noah and his ancestors, not how the story meshes with the New Testament.

Next (and this one stings for some people), Christians don’t have exclusive rights to Noah. He’s a huge part of Judaism (they had him first, after all) and Muslims consider him a prophet. One religion doesn’t just get to say he belongs to them and nobody else. That means Aronofsky doesn’t limit the story to four chapters in Genesis. He pulls from texts that Christians don’t consider canonical.

From an artistic standpoint, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The account in Genesis isn’t the warm, fuzzy version we remember from childhood. A strictly literal interpretation would also raise far more questions than a cinematic narrative could answer in a satisfying way.

For example, the story mentions Noah and his kids, but not his wife. The first time Noah actually speaks, it’s to curse his sons for covering his naked body while he’s drunk. How did a handful of people build an ark that size? How did that same tiny group prevent the rest of civilization from overtaking the ark when the rain started? Aronofsky is able to answer those questions in a dramatically satisfying way that still points to God.

Is Noah for everyone? Absolutely not. Biblical literalists will obviously have huge problems with the material. But the film is compelling and thought-provoking if you approach it from the standpoint of a grand epic like The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. Some people will take offense with viewing the story of Noah in that way, which is certainly their right. But they probably weren’t interested in going into the movie with an open mind to begin with.

Noah is rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief suggestive content.

Grade: B-