First Reviews of Garth Davis' Joaquin Phoenix/Rooney Mara-starring "Mary Magdalene" Are Not Good At All

Fresh off his feature-directing debut "Lion," Garth Davis' decision to make a movie about Mary and Jesus was perceived as rather odd.  However, the fact that Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix star as, respectively, Mary and Jesus is enough to have any true movie lover root for this film. Two of the best actors of their generation take on a story thousands of years old, but are supposed to bring a feminist twist to the surroundings.  

“Mary Magdalene” will be released on March 30th which of course coincides with Easter and Passover, so there clearly is an urge to tap to a certain market with this latest biblical feature, but initial reviews of the film are now in and it doesn’t look good.

Variety: “Hushed, deliberate and realized with considerable care and beauty, the resulting film has its heart entirely in the right place; its pulse, unfortunately, is far harder to locate.”

THR: ” ‘Mary Magdalene’ is an uneasy viewing experience, ponderous and disjointed in places, but also crafted with conviction and a strong aesthetic vision.”

Entertainment Ireland: “It’s difficult to say how well a movie based around religion will do in the modern day, but if you open yourself up to it, ‘Mary Magdalene’ is rewarding on many levels.”

Indiewire: “As Godly spectacle, the film is too introverted to be overwhelming: in place of miracles and wonders, we get pauses and shuffles. Everything ‘Lion’ made transporting and otherwise moving – the sense of youth finding its chosen place in the world – turns repetitious and uninvolving in the draggy second act.”

The Guardian: “This movie, from screenwriters Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett and director Garth Davis, sets itself a bold task: to rescue Mary Magdalene from an age-old tradition of patriarchal condescension and misinterpretation. And yet it winds up embracing a solemn, softly-spoken and slow-moving Christian piety of its own.”

Screen Daily: “On viewing this clearly well-intentioned, attractive, wistful-to-the-point-of-inertia film, it’s easy enough to see why Mary Magdalene has languished: if it’s not exactly a hot-ticket for the Catholic faithful, neither is it something the arthouse might yearn to see.”

The Wrap: “Other than to show that a woman called Mary who wasn’t a prostitute was involved in the final weeks of the Jesus story, I have no idea what the filmmakers wanted for this project. I’m pretty sure they didn’t achieve it.”

The Weinstein Company, which owns this film, have filed for bankruptcy, which does leave us thinking if there ever will be a release, maybe VOD or streaming? Netflix to the rescue of another box-office bomb?