Film Review: Noah

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When I found out that Darren Aronfosky would be following up one of my favorite films (Black Swan) with a take on Noah, I was definitely intrigued. How would this incredibly visionary director tackle the tale? Would it hew close to the Bible or would he make big changes? Well, after viewing the film its difficult to even describe what the film I saw even was. An epic film in a little over two hours that doesn’t quite live up to any of it’s parts and a film that’s more confounding on a movie level than a philosophical level, Noah fails to rise to anything resembling a decent film.

Many of you are familiar with the tale of Noah, but for those not familiar with how the film tackles it, this movie begins with a brief explanation of how the world came to be what it is during Noah’s time. Through an interesting set of scenes and moments we cover everything from the fall of the Garden of Eden to Cain and Abel to Noah’s father being slaughtered in from of his eyes. We then leap forward and Noah is a grown man with a family, moving across the desolate landscape after receiving some harrowing visions from the creator about what will happen to the earth. After running in a mine, he rescues a young girl Ila before being attacked by people and gaining protections from the watchers, rock monsters made from fallen angels. They guide him to his great grandfather Methuselah and he counsels the man to follow the Creator’s messages. The movie then moves to Noah building the ark with his children and Ila now grown up. As the date for the flood nears and the people grow restless the movie moves towards the big event and we see the toll the film takes on Noah before, during, and after the flood that will change the earth forever.

It’s tough to know exactly how to address the film and the issues I have given that it comes from the most famous book ever written. On the one hand, you have to give anyone who is adapting any book the room with which to maneuver and not be tied down by having to be devoted to the source material. However, much of the problems with Noah come with where co-writers Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel decided to depart from the source material and change things around. The more I’ve thought about the film, the more the movie has felt like he sat down, read the Bible and took out parts from act 1, 3 and the last bit of 5, while injecting his wants his desires in the in between. That could have worked, but instead Noah feels disjointed because of his desire to move away, his changes really affecting the connective tissue that holds the tale of Noah together.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with Noah’s dealing with the watchers and the building of the ark. I’m not one to hoot and holler about people injecting magical elements into movies but those Watchers had to be the most misplaced elements in a big blockbuster epic in quite some time. Not because they don’t fit the film, as they do indeed seem aligned with Aronfsky’s vision, but because they completely undercut what makes Noah an interesting tale. In the Bible, Noah has to take this burden of  building this ark with just his family as help. No one was here for him initially, he has to convince his family to help, the people constantly make fun of him for building something to weather a storm when they’ve never seen rain. Noah is a tale of pursing and obeying God even through the toughest of times when you simply have to go on faith, and the writers completely misses the boat here. I mean his family never once questions the fact that they have to build the ark, in fact they support him every step of the way. He only has one major confrontation with the villain of the piece (Ray Winstone) and the townspeople until the rains come and that confrontation is lessened cause of these Watcher rock monsters. There is nothing in this movie that shows the struggle of Noah having to deal with the sheer burden of building the ark or the time it took to do so. Everything in the middle portion of the film is so damn cheery and easy going that it makes the end feel over dramatic.

Aronofsky decides that rather pursuing that he wants to deal with the ramifications that the impending flood will have on the family, which is where the strongest material of the film comes from. Ila (Emma Watson)’s inability to have children and Ham’s (Logan Lerman) want for a wife/someone to love really add a realistic human element to this epic event. However, by the time we get on the ark this lovely element begins to be used to compensate for the earlier mistakes. When by a miracle Ila becomes pregnant Noah starts to go off the rails about how God wants to punish man and how he’ll kill her children if they are girls…whet? I get trying to make the internal external but this simply made no sense and I’m sad to say I laughed out loud during the third act of the film. It’s not even a matter of the drama, it’s the underlying logic. The Creator spared your family and told you to build an ark so you decide that the Creator mean to wipe out all men and therefore your entire family must die? If that was the case, why did the Creator allow you to get on the ark? The logic holes in the third act are incredible. Furthermore, there’s a resolution with a character that makes absolutely no sense given the fact that Noah and his family are the only folks alive on the planet, especially his last line, and only serves to make Noah an unlikable charter, rather than a morally complex one.

Furthermore, the entire third act, and film in general, feels compressed to within an inch of its life. I know Aronofksy and Handel had to hit a certain time but nothing in this film carried the weight of taking place over a large amount of time or the effect this has on the characters. The ending is extremely rushed and some of the most epic moments of the conclusion of Noah are mere seconds long.

Even with these script and plot issues, the acting of the film comes through. Russell Crowe is a solid presence as the titular character and does much with the material, even when it undermines him. Jennifer Connelly, an actress I could take or leave, carves out a place in this film for herself, even when playing a bit too template for my liking. Her showdowns with Noah once the family is in the ark are wonders to behold and Connelly tears into them with relish. Emma Watson, whom many have taken to task, is pretty good in her role, even when she’s hampered with repetitive dialogue or terrible fake tear effects (seriously did they have to have her cry 5 tears from different places on her eye?). Of the supporting cast, Logan Lerman was probably my favorite as he felt like the only real element that fit what Aronofsky’s vision truly was.

Also managing to rise above are the technical elements of the film. The sound design of this film is amazing. There’s nothing quite like when that flood starts to come and you feel the rumble of the waves and the sounds of people screaming. Though I’m not a fan of his writing, I must say that Aronfsky’s visual sensibility is still top notch. I’ve often wondered just how those animals fit on the ark and Aronofsky finds a fun way to explore this.

It’s too bad that this movie couldn’t have been more coherent. Noah will certainly be a conversation starter, which is not bad for a film, but the movie itself doesn’t hold up.

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Terence Johnson

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