O Livro da Vida

This film is an absolute work of genius. It blends little bits of laugh-out-loud humor, with lots of really great satire, and commentary on the whole issue of the apocalypse and the millennium. The camera movements and tricks take a few minutes to get used to, but after that they add to the feeling that this is no ordinary, bland movie, and give a sense that what is happening is completely farfetched and fantastical, and at the same time very very real.

One of the best i've seen!!!!!!!!

I taped this movie and have inflicted it on everyone who's come to visit me. I love it very much. I loved Martin Donovan as Jesus and I REALLY loved Thomas Jay Ryan as Satan. In our house we quote movies all the time. I spent a month quoting Satan. I guess as a writer I look a little deeper into these things, but I truly loved it. I loved the constant movement of the actors, the odd angles, the digital blur, and the soundtrack. The microphones in strategic places for Satan were great too. A movie that knows its a movie. Very cool.

While the camerawork was certainly "funky" - perhaps one dutch-roll short of "stoned" - the premise of the film was fantastic. It really took a scathingly satirical (in the true traditional of Hal Hartley) look at God, Jesus and Devil. The interaction of Jesus and Satan provides some hilarious scenes... Even the monologues of Jesus were great - this was by far the best Jesus I've even seen. So laidback, Zen-like, Son-of-God-ish but still such a nice guy. On one level this is a very general look on the paradoxes of Christianity, but yet there is still a personal level, where you can relate to Jesus Christ without having a God-Complex (thanx to Martin Donovan and Hal Hartley).

I just saw Hal Hartley's 'The Book of Life', and while not out-and-out my favorite Hal Hartley film, it has all the charm one can expect from his work.

Another reviewer complains of "predictable" and "unbelievably straightforward" (not sure what he means) jokes, and a plot that "rumbles on from one event to the next" (again, not sure how that is bad), but this is not a plot-driven or joke-driven film. It is idea-driven, and brilliantly so, as most of Hartley's films are. The film is only a few minutes more than an hour long, but it has more ideas contained within it than most feature length films. Even though he claims that "Hal" ought to have known better, and relays his experience that acting in Hartley's films is "peculiar", the other reviewer does not seem to truly be familiar with this director. If this person was, it would seem less likely that they would denigrate the performances in the film, which are quintessentially Hartley-esque.

Martin Donovan, who is a treat to watch in any film but particularly in his element when working with Hartley, plays a disillusioned Jesus, who has arrived in New York with his assistant, Magdalena, on the eve of the millenium to open the final three seals on the book of life, and reluctantly unleash the Apocalypse. Satan, played by 'Henry Fool''s Thomas Jay Ryan, is also lurking about in NYC, continuing to trap souls, and grousing about the coming apocalypse, albeit for different reasons than Jesus. Although Jesus and Satan are iconic characters, this film, as one would expect from a Hal Hartley scenario, chooses instead to base it's characterizations of them on their human qualities, placing them under, rather than outside, the influence of humanity.

I believe that anyone who appreciates Hal Hartley's work, or who appreciates smaller, more thought-provoking films, would find plenty to rejoice about in "The Book of Life".

This movie is one of a kind. All of the Hal elements are there. Dramatic pauses, unique camera work, off beat score, memorable one-liners (Satan: "Natural disasters...very profitable").

Even Martin Donavon as the tortured J. Christ who suddenly realizes that revenge is not redemption. There is a humorous scene where Satan and Jesus meet at a bar, do a couple of shots, and discuss the future of the world.

To some (Christians), this movie may seem a bit blasphemous. But that is because they are too busy putting Jesus on some pedestal while forgetting that the Bible says he was just as much a man as a god.

And the Mormons love it, even though Jesus questions who they are in the film.

Looking forward to Hal's next full length feature, No Such