MARY

US/UK, 2024, 112 minutes, Colour.

Noa Cohen, Anthony Hopkins, Ido Tako, Hilla Vidor, Ori :Pfeffer,  Gudmunmdur Thorvaldsson, Mila Harris, Dudley O'Shaughnessy, Eamon Farren.

Directed by D.J. Caruso.

Almost immediately, Mary looks straight to camera telling us to trust her, that we do not know her story at all. And, by the end of the film, we realise that, apart from the key Gospel scenes of the infancy narratives, just how much inventiveness there is in this storytelling. It is the work of screenwriter, Timothy Michael Hayes who is credited in the Internet Movie Database note, as responsible for “inventive biopics”. This is certainly the case here (and we might agree with the familiar  declaration during the final credits that, while based on actual characters, characters and events have been reworked for dramatic purposes.

It was only in the second and third centuries that Christians wanted to know more about the biblical characters, creating alternative narratives, different Gospels, giving names to characters who are not even mentioned in the Gospels, especially Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne. The screenwriter has drawn on some of these apocryphal Gospels, especially the proto-evangelion of James, as well as the visions of mystics like Maria of Agreda and Anne Catherine Emmerich, the latter one of the inspirations for Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

With the focus on the young Mary, her elderly parents praying for a child, their dedicating her to the temple, Mary as a young student at the temple, the encounter with Joseph…the film might well be described as a Young Adult interpretation of Mary aimed at the young adult audience. But, while the film might have been open to younger children’s audiences but the Mary stories interwoven with the dramatic history of Herod the Great, played by Anthony Hopkins in his mid-80s like a King Lear gone wrong, with some very bloodthirsty sequences, his torture of the High Priest, and the expected massacre of the innocents.

Filmed in Morocco, one of the difficulties is that the film’s sense of geography, Nazareth in Galilee, Jerusalem in the south, Bethlehem near Jerusalem, is rather skewiff, especially the closeness here of Nazareth to Jerusalem.

The screenplay also draws on some familiar Gospel themes and applying them these characters, Joachim fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, the visitation with Mary and Elizabeth, Mary under suspicion for her pregnancy and the possibility for her being stoned…

One of the difficulties of the screenplay is the frequent appearance of Gabriel, always in blue, sinister rather than angelic and also Satan with taunts and temptations for Mary. Which means then that Mary as the mother of the Messiah seems to be fairly common knowledge not only for her family, but for the high priest, for Herod, and for the people, the knowledge of the bright star signalling Jesus birth. Not exactly the Gospel perspective on the gradual awareness of Jesus and his mission.

One Gospel character does get some welcome attention, the prophetess Anna in the Temple, friend and protector of Mary (a credible and welcome interpretation of her role), with a frail Simeon coming in with his words to Mary of the sword piercing her heart.

There will be a variety of responses to this film, biblical scholars probably not enthusiastic at all, ordinary viewers, not familiar with Gospel details and literary forms, enjoying it at the Young Adult level mixed with swords and sandals atmosphere.

An American priest, from Green Bay diocese,  Edward Looney, a theologian with an emphasis on Marian studies, was invited to  write almost immediately an analysis of the screenplay for Crisis Magazine, relating it to the Gospels, and noting the influences of the early alternate Gospels and the visions of the mystics. It is well worth Googling: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-unrecognizable-netflix-mary

1. The traditional Gospel films, biblical epics, Mary stories?
2. A film for the 21^st-century, imagination about Mary, the re-creation of her early life?
3. The Gospel references, comparatively few, the drawing on second century apocryphal Gospels and their narratives, the naming of characters unnamed in the Gospels, Joachim and Anne? The Gospel-referenced Simeon and Anna, the attention given to the prophetess, Anna? The influence of the German mystics, Spanish and Italian mystics and their visions?
4. The screenplay, the young Mary, the young Joseph – and the tone of a Young Adult story? The language of coming-of-age?
5. The visuals, the recreation of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the surrounding desert? The placing of Nazareth nearer to Jerusalem than it is? The musical score?
6. Audiences watching the film, biblical scholars reacting to the license taken with the storytelling and imagination, the Catholic and Christian audience and their knowledge of Mary, interest in the imaginings? Non-Catholics and members of other religions, or not, observing it as a narrative?
7. The setting, Joachim and Anne, his 40 days in the desert, her pregnancy, giving birth, committing Mary to the temple, their life in Nazareth, Joachim under attack? The concern for Mary, the meeting with Joseph, the betrothal, her pregnancy, the law and her possibly being stoned?
8. The appearances of the Angel Gabriel, the blue cloak, the somewhat sinister androgynous look? Appearing to so many people, the screenplay indicating that most people knew that Mary was chosen, the birth of her son, his mission? The appearances of the Satan, his confrontation with Mary?
9. Mary, the temple, with the other young women, her concern about the poor, charity? With the authorities? Reprimanded? With Anna? The washing, the encounter with Joseph?
10. Joseph, young, his friends, the discussions, not particularly interested, fascinated with Mary, his approach to her parents, the courtship, the betrothal, her situation (and his not being warned in a dream to take her), the journey to Bethlehem, the crowds, the inn, the birth?
11. The other half of the film with Herod, Anthony Hopkins as a demented monarch, his relationships, wife, executions, his family? The rebuilding of the temple? His military advisor? His status, his image of himself? The tantrums? Visit to the temple, confrontation with Mary? The news about the child, the visit of the Magi, the attack on the children of Bethlehem, the killings, the rounding up of the babies, the corridor with the cribs? His vision of himself, in relationship to Rome and the Empire?
12. Mary and Joseph going to the temple, the presentation of Jesus, Simeon and his prophecy?
13. A satisfying drama, dramatising biblical stories, the inventions, the 21^st-century perspective of storytelling?