Maria, madre di Gesù

When I watched it, I was filled with expectancy of a well-written and well-acted movie. The movie was well acted. The actors and actresses did a good job, especially Christian Bale. But the movie itself struck an ill-placed chord in me. The producers and directors made this movie the Hollywood way. There were many things that wasn't right, that didn't come from the scriptures. They could've followed the biblical story of Jesus and Mary and Joseph better. That's just my opinion.

This TV-movie is well-intentioned but mechanical. I knew from the opening that there was a problem with the production when the opening narrative was printed on the screen and read at the same time with a voice that sounded like the station-break announcer.

The film just goes through the motions and gives us every cliche of second-rate Biblical movies including Jesus as a fair-skinned Anglo-Saxon. Christian Bale does what he can with the material but is terribly mis-cast. His mother is presented as a politically-correct feminist who apparently is responsible for Jesus' teachings and parables which were, according to the plot, the bedtime stories she told Jesus when he was a child.

The sets and costumes are good, but the performances are flat and perfunctory. What we get here is a shallowness reminiscent of school plays. The Gospels are condensed into a 2 hour TV movie that has the profundity of a Readers' Digest version of the Bible.

Although I do have a 1/4 hebrew heritage, and practice the gaialic religion, I believe I can give this movie a fair review. I have read the christain bible, and the facts were confused. If I think about it, I think this was a rushed production made in order to beat out CBS' mini series Jesus release date. The acting was extremely weird, especially on the behalf of Bale, who I know can do better, and I never felt anything coming from this production, and I forgot that it was a based on event movie, by the second half. So overall, I don't think there is really anything to recomend, not even for extreme believers in the christain faith, or Baleheads of any kind.

"Mary, Mother of Jesus" is a TV-attempt that features actors so sincere and so powerfully moving that you almost wish that the movie would just get out of their way and let them act in the way they all know they can!

Telling the life of Jesus (Christian Bale) through the eyes of Mary (played by Anakin Skywalker's mom in "Episode One," by the way), the film in itself is very fast-moving and very paper-thin. Unless the viewer is familiar with the biblical depiction of Christ, he or she will be unutterably lost in this account, since the scenes move so fast and it never leaves the watcher any time to really grasp what's going on. Jesus doesn't even begin his ministry until the last hour, and then, we barely get a look at his disciples and miracles before he is arrested and crucified. And his resurrection is so underplayed, it could have easily been straight from a bad episode of "Touched By An Angel." I don't know....As a Christian, I just feel thst my Savior deserves more than this.... The idea of the emphasis switching to Mary is nice, but couldn't they have stretched this out to a miniseries to make it a little more coherent?

The film effectiveness, however, lies in the cast. Christian Bale is convincing as Christ, bravely presenting him as a Divine figure with love for everyone. He also presents a human side as well, emphasizing on his need to talk to God and his desire to be with his mother even though he knows he cannot. Bale has always been an underrated actor in my book, and his performance here is very nice, though rather underplayed, since he has little to work with. It would have been nicer to see more emphasis on Jesus in this....but nay, it isn't to be: This is a movie about Mary.

Ah, Mary. Pernilla August is very nice as Mary as well, though a little innacurate. Due to the status of women back in the days of Christ, I doubt that she was such a daring revolutionary, and if she was, she wouldn't have strutted the fact around so much. I think she was just a normal, common girl who didn't seem worthy of God's selection....In this film, her assertiveness makes her the perfect, most likely choice. I would have rather seen played it the other way....It would have made a more interesting movie with her doubting herself, and then Jesus filling her, his own mother, with hope and he filled others with hope. But, once again, not enough time to establish this, and the lack of characterization bogs the film down....especially with an actress so promising for the part.

Is it worth watching? For the performances, yes. However, as far as true emotion and power of the story goes, the viewer is better-off watching "Jesus of Nazareth."

**1/2 out of ****

This was a good idea, but I had problems with the execution. I felt this movie sacrificed more than it gained. Because it limited itself to what Mary experienced firsthand, it omitted huge chunks of the story of Jesus (like, for example, the Last Supper). If it had really developed Mary's character, that would have been a decent trade, but she comes a cross as a stock character whose words and actions are predictable and unremarkable.

This could have been a good movie, but they didn't take the trouble to do it right.