Review of Netflix’s “Mary”
By Tom Quiner
Making a “Mary” movie is a risky proposition. Catholics devoted to the Blessed Mother approach the production with their own preconceived ideas on Mary. Protestants may have fewer notions on Mary, but still desire a degree of historical accuracy. Netflix’s “Mary” falls short in both departments.
The executive director of the production is mega church pastor, Joel Osteen, who preaches what he calls the ‘prosperity’ gospel. Osteen’s theology is quite different than that of Catholics and evangelical Christians, as Bishop Robert Barron pointed out:
“So embrace the prosperity Gospel, as long as you construe prosperity along properly Gospel lines. Following God’s will, abandoning yourself to the divine providence, will indeed give you treasure in heaven, but don’t expect it necessarily to give you treasure on earth.”
In other words, a Joel Osteen production immediately presents a red flag.
Mary Aloe, head of the production company, Aloe Entertainment, that made the film, said she wanted the film to be a ‘survival thriller’:
“While this movie is for families, we always had the youth of the world, our future, as our focus. I always thought, what if we could make an exciting movie about Mary, her family, Joseph and Jesus — a survival thriller. An ever-green film that kids, teens, and families around the world wanted to watch it again and again.”
The film was directed by D.J. Caruso, a Catholic, who also wanted the film to appeal to a young audience:
“I wanted to inspire, particularly younger viewers, to say, “Wow, Mary could be my friend. A lot of what she went through is contemporary and what’s happening in the world today. I know she’s this iconic, beautiful, holy mother who we all venerate, but at the same time, she was also a young woman like I was; she had to make these decisions, and she had to go through these things.” I wanted to make her human and relatable so that people would embrace her and even love her more than they do.”
With that as background, we approached the film with caution while acknowledging the need for artistic license in any biblical production.
The Osteen/Aloe/Caruso team wisely cast the roles of Mary (Noa Cohen) and Joseph (Ido Tako) with unknown actors, allowing them to present a fresh perspective on two-thirds of the Holy Family.
Oscar-winning actor, Anthony Hopkins, portrayed King Herod with relish, chewing up scene after scene as one of history’s greatest villains.
So does the movie work? Not really. It’s not just that Ms. Cohen isn’t quite ‘our Mary’ either. Vanessa Benavente isn’t quite our Mary in her portrayal of the Blessed Mother in “The Chosen.” And yet that entire production is wonderful.
Two scenes don’t work
Two specific, key scenes fall flat: the Annunciation and the Visitation. The script writers took too much license with Sacred Scripture. For the Annunciation, a ghoulish Gabriel appears to Mary and says,
“Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God …”
… instead of the actual words from Luke 1:28:
“Greetings, O highly favored one, the Lord is with you.”
And then, when Mary visits Elizabeth, the song of Mary, the Magnificat, was jarringly absent. They are the Handmaiden’s lovely words that magnify God, and have made her so special for all of eternity.
Ghoulish Netflix Gabriel leaves out the thrilling words of the Gabriel in the Gospel of Luke who says,
Jesus “will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. He will be called Son of God.”
A huge omission.
When John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb in recognition of the Messiah in Mary’s womb, the Netflix Elizabeth remained clueless that Mary was pregnant. The role of the Holy Spirit in this dramatic scene from the Bible was missing.
Back to Gabriel for a minute. What was the creative team thinking in making him look so weird and foreboding? Yes, the actual Gabriel is most surely fearsome, but in a glorious, courageous way, not a dark, spooky way.
A different take on the Annunciation
Interestingly, the great Franco Zeffirelli didn’t even show Gabriel in his wonderful depiction of the Annunciation in his 1977 masterpiece, “Jesus of Nazareth” (above). We viewers are fickle. Olivia Hussey’s portrayal of Mary in that production spoiled me forever.
I wanted to really like the Netflix Mary movie. It was … okay. “Mary” left out too much of the biblical narrative while inserting too much apocryphal material in its quest to be a survival thriller. I would have preferred a story that focused more on the mystery of our faith, co-starring the Handmaiden of the Lord.
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