Noah

Noah  Yesterday a friend from work has sang praises to this one so I decided to check it out. The subtitled versions were either at 19:00 or at 21:45 and since I didn't want to miss the evening prayer, I have decided to go to the 21:45 one. And of course I have missed the morning prayer :(

The film was a big surprise to me since I was completely ready and prepared for a religious epic (a modern Ten Commandments or Prince of Egypt or something like that) and I have found a psycological drama.

There are some religious messages but the biggest cause seems to be environmentalist and the story is more a study of family dynamics and one man's inner turmoils. It has minimal similarities to Noah's story in the holy books. Yes there is an ark, yes there are animals in couples, yes there is a flood caused as a punishment for people. But that is about it. Noah's family and how the decisions he takes affect them and himself are the central points of the film I suppose.

The villain is a king descendent from Cain and an industrialist, caring nothing about the nature, environment and the obvious consequences of his actions. His people are a sorry bunch, having to live in a dog eat dog world and hooked on meat (yeah meat eating is considered very very bad). Also I think eating meat makes one stupid since these people fight over a scrap of meat when there are lots of other things to eat around them. So if the point is not dying from hunger they certainly had other options but they seemed to be unaware of them.

And Noah doesn't take any of these people on his ark even though they are desparate to get on it. No one questions the coming disaster, everyone wants to live. Noah even leaves an innocent girl caught in an animal trap (his son Hem befriended the girl and was trying get her on board). So unlike holy books, Noah here is very anthipatic.

I liked the film a lot. First of all there were a lot of close up shots, the acting was very good all around (highlights were Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connely and Emma Watson - Ray Winstone is a fave of mine but this sort of role he can do sleeping, it was not as challenging), the cinematography was excellent.

All in all I had a great time and shed tears over the melodrama.


There are some negatives of course the first and foremost being Russel Crowe's hair (yes, it is rather silly but it was so distracting especially at the last two scenes - it made me realise how important hair and make up in a film is).