海角大神

A whole lot of water gets dumped in Darren Aronofsky鈥檚 鈥淣oah,鈥� a movie for which the phrase 鈥渙ver the top鈥� seems pitifully inadequate. Most biblical epics are stodgy affairs. Not this one 鈥� which is not to say that it鈥檚 good.

Russell Crowe plays the world鈥檚 most famous mariner in a style that can only be descibed as 鈥淩ussell Crowe-ish鈥� 鈥� surly, burly, and monosyllabic. Even when he is called upon to string several sentences together, he usually breaks them up into phrases of no more than three or four words each. I gather he was not being paid by the word.

Literalists are up in arms over the supposed biblical inaccuracies in 鈥淣oah,鈥� but this assumes the filmmakers were attempting to be literal. Instead, what we have is a wacked-out fantasia based on snippets from the Bible and also the book of Enoch, Midrashic commentary, and, not least, the 鈥淭ransformers鈥� movies. (The Watchers, fallen angels guarding Noah鈥檚 ark, owe much more to Michael Bay than to the Creator.)

Aronofsky also works in a hefty environmental message here. The Almighty has to wreak havoc on Earth because its denizens have despoiled it. I half expected to see Al Gore do a walk-on.

I鈥檓 a big fan of movie follies, which often are more fun than safe successes. But Aronofsky (鈥淏lack Swan,鈥� 鈥淭he Wrestler鈥�) doesn鈥檛 have the visionary gift. His grand-scale tableaux, even the Great Flood, are stagey. He encourages his cast 鈥� including Jennifer Connelly as Noah鈥檚 wife, Naameh; Ray Winstone as local bad guy Tubal-cain; and Emma Watson as Noah鈥檚 adopted daughter, Ila 鈥� to devour the scenery. It鈥檚 appropriate 鈥� perfect 鈥� that one of the lead characters (overplayed by Logan Lerman) is named Ham. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief suggestive content.)