Movie Thoughts: Mary (2024)

• Released: December 6th, 2024
  
• Directed by: D.J. Caruso
• Running time: 1h 52min
  
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

An adaptation of the nativity of Jesus, told from Mary's perspective.

My Thoughts

When I saw this movie on Netflix I was like "hmm, okay. The story of Jesus' birth told epically and from Mary's POV. Could be interesting." But surprisingly, out of the few Christmas movies I ended up watching this year, this one taking itself completely seriously and with possibly the highest budget is also the worst. Yes, I genuinely thought the two animated children's Christmas films I watched this year were more competent and well put-together than this one.

I feel like this movie is somewhat trying to "Game of Thrones"-ify the Bible and Mary's story. Now, I don't need every biblical adaptation to be 100% accurate in order for it to be good. After all, I absolutely adore The Prince of Egypt and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), and both take creative liberties. But this movie just didn't feel all that competent on a writing level, and like it was taking itself too seriously and trying too hard to be epic.

One aspect of this movie that was frustrating was the obnoxious way in which exposition was delivered. It felt completely forced and unnatural. Honestly I've legit seen children's films with less on-the-nose and forced exposition. I don't need characters to repeat things they already know, or another character's name or their relationship to the other character, stuff like that. We should be able to infer those things from context clues in the movie, not have them obviously shoved in our faces all the time.

The relationship between Joseph and Mary also felt terribly rushed and forced and I didn't get a feeling that there was a genuine romance here. It also happened super fast. Blink with your eyes and suddenly they're engaged.

Another thing that absolutely bothered me was the villain. Whoever played King Herod in this was playing the part way too casually. He didn't feel like a threatening villain, he felt like a random old guy I might come across in the grocery store. And again, his delivery lacked any subtlety. 

This movie was just frustrating overall. I wouldn't call it outright bad because there is some good things here (such as the acting of quite a few other characters, and I do like some aspects of how they adapted the story), but for every good aspect of this movie there are just as many frustrating ones. 

I really think this would've needed a few more rewrites, and some different directing for the actor playing Herod.