nativity story

OK let me say that I didn’t get the chance to read the book before had so I can’t compare it. Which may be a good thing. After all the hype and hyperbole about this destroying the Christian faith DCV feels more like a second rate thriller than a life changing movie. This is no Matrix in terms of its spiritual overtones. it is more of a journey in to history and lots and lots and lots of convoluted theories and speculation. From a movie making standpoint I was disappointed.

This is not Ron Howard’s best work and Tom Hanks is not at the top of his game. French actor Jean Reno and Hank’s costar Audrey Tautou do a fair but unimpressive job. Alfred Molina also does a passable job as the single minded Bishop Aringarosa. By far the most outstanding cast member is Ian McKellen who plays his role as the Priory of Scion expert Sir Leigh Teabing with relish and enthusiasm without going over the top. Paul Bettany is effectively scary and convincing as the albino “servant” of the Opus Dei Silas. There are some interesting special effects related to cryptography. But the story could be difficult to follow and tends to drag, despite a couple of car chase scenes. There is only minimal character development done through flashbacks which I found more distracting than helpful. The historical flashback are presented in an interesting though not always effective way. There are several historical inaccuracies on which the basic premise of the movies is based. Maybe I should say that much of what is presented as historical fact is more like conjecture about historical events.

As to the problem of the movie attacking the Christian faith I think that the people who have the biggest axe to grind is the Roman Catholic church, in particular the Ops Dei group. Members of this group are presented as manipulative. deceptive and immoral in there effort to keep the secret that would destroy the faith undiscovered. There are some interesting questions posed about the import of the divinity of Jesus, the origins of the biblical canon and the role that doctrine play in faith. But all in all the is nothing ground shaking unless one has a completely literal an fundamentalist view of scripture faith and Christian practice

It strikes me that with all the conjecture buried layer on upon layer very few people of faith are going to turn away from their faith because of this movie. In fact I think it takes more faith to belief in circuitous trail of theories and conjecture in the movie that it does to belief in than the seemingly unbelievable aspects of the Christian faith. Those who are spiritually searching my well go down the rabbit hole trying to follow this trail but it could also lead then to seek more information from Jesus followers and ask more question of friends of faith.

Bottom line is it is an OK movie nothing to write home about from a spiritual perspective and so so film making. But my wife enjoyed it and she was not really exposed to all the hype and has not read the book. Doctoral studies will do that to you.
There are some pretty graphic scenes of self flagellation, violence, brief nudity, and sexual references and drug use that make this unsuitable for anyone under 13 so the rating is justified. This will not destroy the Christian faith or harm it in my opinion any more than the Last Temptation of Christ did. But all the hype will sell a lot of tickets. My opinion if you have some spiritually searching friends who are dying to see it go take it in with the and talk about it afterward. Use the opportunity to have conversations about spiritual matters with others. If you aren’t just dying to see it then wait for video. Though it might be a while because I do expect this to be in the theaters for several months. Can you say DVD release hype to come?