You may think you know my story. Trust me, you don’t.’ Mary (Noa Cohen) looks dead straight at the camera and declares so. There couldn’t be a better start for a movie on the mother of Jesus. Yes, we all know the story but do we know it like how Mary perhaps knew it? I was intrigued but for all that boldness, the bravest scene was the ‘meet cute’ between Mary and Joseph (Ido Tako).
The rest of the movie plays out like the epic biopic it is — horses gallop across deserts multiple times, there are angels and devils, sweeping cinematography, and Anthony Hopkins who plays the evil King Herod. He is a joy to watch and the screen lights up when he is around. Strutting around, he asks in his most matter-of-fact voice, ‘Why do you need a messiah, eh why?’ Lucifer and Gabriel appear quite regularly — while buzzing flies precede the Devil, Gabriel in flowing blue robes, for some curious reason, sports a permanent scowl.
Beginning with Mary’s birth, the film ends with her and Joseph escaping the massacre of infants in Bethlehem, which, of course, gives the makers many opportunities for some slow-mo sword slashing. Very predictable indeed. In the end, Mary tells the infant Jesus that she has chosen him as much as he has chosen her. If only the movie had focused more on Mary’s choices (or the lack of them) and told us a story from her perspective as promised instead of some occasional dialogue baazi! A truly missed opportunity, this.