Reviewing The Passion

I've given my own review of The Passion of the Christ, but Rocky Mountain News' own Robert Denerstein has a review that I think is one of the most even and reasonable that I've read from a professional reviewer. Oddly, though Denerstein comes from a Jewish background, and I have my own Baptist background, it would seem that our experience in the film as a movie was much the same.

No question, Gibson has made the ultimate religious Rorschach test, a movie that can be used to fuel nearly any fire.
[...]
Because of the languages in which The Passion was filmed (Aramaic and Latin), Gibson's story at times seems like the most Semitic version of this story ever made. Many of the characters sound Jewish, including Jesus (James Caviezel).

I don't know Aramaic. But to hear a language that sounds, and on occasion overlaps with, the one I learned in Hebrew school, seems to ground the story in a Jewish milieu.

While I haven't gone into detail here about the parts of the movie that truly didn't work for me, my ultimate judgment matches Denerstein's perfectly. This is a good movie, not a great one.

Read the rest of the review.

Update: As Andy notes in the comments, Jon from the Rant has another even-handed (if incomplete) review on the movie. I'll be curious to see what he has to say when he writes a more full review.

Posted by zombyboy at March 1, 2004 12:28 PM | TrackBack