Film Diary 2014: Noah

Wisely, fortunately, this is pitched more like a dystopian sci-fi than a solemn religious parable. Taking place on an otherworldly Earth where man and gigantic fallen angels - encrusted in delightfully Jim Henson-like rock bodies - co-exist, this film uses its well known story to ask some intriguing and big questions, and toys, gleefully, with the viewer's expectations and ideologies.

Russell Crowe is Noah, a person who believes in a balance between animals, nature and humankind. A descendent of Seth - one of Eve's three sons - whose brother Abel was murdered by their kin Cain, and now the line of Seth seems nearly depleted to Noah's immediate family. Noah himself is haunted by the murder of his own father when he was a child, and these traumas still clearly play on his mind. In one affecting scene early on there's a look of infant fragility in Crowe's twinkling eyes as his wife, Naameh (Jennifer Connelly) soothes him to sleep.

Noah has dreams and visions, startling and abstract, that he infers are portents of a great cleansing of the world. He travels to visit his grandfather, Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins), and there, in the midst of a drug induced slumber, Noah realises that he is to build an ark to save two of every (land dependent) animal from the impending flood.

When Tubal-cain (Ray Winstone) learns of Noah's quest he sets up camp nearby, his hordes of desperate followers, who have depleted the Earth's resources in their industrial expansion, willing to form an army and take the ark by force if Noah won't permit them a space.

Throughout the film Aronfosky utilises storytelling and flashback to deliver some phenomenal visual spectacles, most strikingly is Noah's creation story, which he tells to his family when their spirits are at their lowest. It's a beautifully realised moment, even moreso for its contradiction between the images and Noah's words. Whilst including plenty of nods to a higher power, the force driving the meteorological events is only ever referred to as The Creator, though, as part of Noah's beliefs, scenes from the Garden of Eden are also depicted.

Yet, Aronofsky has the nuance to stretch out beyond the confines of theology, letting the film's messages touch upon broader ideas of enviromentalism and the nature of good and evil, to name a couple. Noah, as the film carries on, is disturbed, dealing with a huge trauma and a dubiously divinely prescribed burden of damning the entire population of Earth to death. He becomes obsessed with a different mission to the cuddly one usually associated with Noah and it makes for some interesting drama once the film's big set-piece has occured, and gives Jennifer Connelly a chance to shine in the film's second half.

Overall, it is a muddled film, and there are a number of weak performances here and there in the key supporting roles, but it's also a glorious, gigantic, ambitious, ridiculous film that doesn't flinch from being weird and fantastical and telling an analogous story that reflects, what should be, genuine concerns.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here