Movie Review Mafia Mamma

Mafia Mamma (2023) 

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke 

Written by Michael J. Feldman, Debbie Jhoon

Starring Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci 

Release Date April 14th, 2023 

Published April 17th, 2023 

There is something just off about Mafia Mamma. This a movie where the lead murders a man by repeatedly jamming her high heel into a man's groin and then his to the point where it's noted that pieces of the man's scrotum were found in his eye socket. And yet, it's also a film that tonally is intended to be a comedy about a woman finding her confidence for the first time, leaving her husband, beating empty-nest syndrome, and seeking the things that maker her happy rather than worrying about others. Not surprisingly, the Girlboss finding her feet story clashes with the scrotum in the eye story. 

Mafia Mamma stars Toni Collette as Kristen, a deeply put-upon working mom. As we join the story, Kristen is fretting over the fact that her beloved son, Domenick (Tommy Rodger) is leaving for college. The empty syndrome is strong with Kristen, she's a mess. It's set to be the first time that she and her musician husband, Paul (Tim Daish) have been alone together in 18 years. Naturally, that won't last as Paul is immediately revealed as cheating on Kristen. He's not gone from the movie but this latest humiliation is the catalyst for the rest of the story. 

Kristen's grandfather was, until recently, the head of an Italian crime family, something Kristen was not aware of. Kristen's mother had escaped the mafia life years earlier and Don Grandpa had allowed this so as to keep Kristen safe from his enemies. Now that he's dead however, the crime family belongs to Kristen. Yes, apparently you can inherit a mafia family. Technically, Kristen has inherited an Italian Vineyard that happens to be a mob front, but regardless. Wanting to escape her cheating husband, Kristen accepts an invitation to her grandfather's funeral. 

At the funeral, Kristen is nearly killed as a rival family aims to take advantage of the Don's death. It will be up to Kristen, under the guidance of her grandfather's consigliere, Bianca (Monica Bellucci) to attempt to broke peace with this other family. To say that Kristen is not prepared to be a Mob leader is the entire comic premise of the film. Kristen works in pharmaceutical sales for her day job so, yeah, being a mob boss is not in her typical skill set. Though one could draw a comparison between Pharmaceutical companies and the Mob, this movie isn't smart enough to make that joke. 

Instead, we watch Kristen compile an accidental body count. Her tete a tete with a fellow mob boss ends in death, I mentioned the scrotum in the eye guy, and there are several more gruesome, bloody deaths and stabbings in Mafia Mamma. The filmmakers appear to want to be true to the reality of this scenario, the idea that Kristen would be a very unlikely and comically underprepared mob boss and the reality that being in the mob is grim and bloody business that very often ends in a lot of death. A lot of gruesome, bloody death. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Irreversible

Irreversible (2002) 

Directed Gaspar Noe 

Written by Gaspar Noe 

Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassell 

Release Date May 22nd, 2002 

Published February 7th, 2023. 

Irreversible begins with the end credits moving backwards and immediately sets you into the disorientation you are going to experience as the story unfolds backwards. It's not just the credits moving backwards, or the words of the credits being inverted, it's Gaspar Noe's camera which moves not in the sense of being a fly on the wall but rather like a fly that never stops moving, looping, flying here and there up and down and upside down. It's legitimately headache inducing. It's intended to be. 

This camera/fly will lead us back in time, back inside a nightclub called Rectum where a murder has just occurred. We've just seen to men removed from the club to an ambulance and accompanied by Police. We are about to learn why they are surrounded by cops as the two have them have just brutally beaten a man to death so violently that his head is basically gone. It's not just the camera though that is leaving us achy and disjointed, the soundtrack is a swirling vortex of sound rising and falling, loud and then quiet. It's a disquieting, swirling and painful hum. 

I will give the soundtrack credit, as hard as it is to listen to, it causes the kind of tense anxiety that our main character, Vincent Cassell's Marcus, is feeling as he shoves his way through this sex club searching for the man who sexually assaulted and nearly murders Marcus' girlfriend, Alex (Monica Bellucci). Marcus is rage personified and the red lighting of the club seems to match the red-hot intensity of his burning, violent anger. Noe peppers the scene with scenes of hardcore gay sex that is nearly as disturbing as the violence that the scene is building to. 

Sex and violence in the world of Gaspar Noe go hand in hand. A man who claims to know where Tenia, the man Marcus is looking for, can be found begs Marcus to Fist him in the ass, something that may in fact be pleasurable but carries with it a sense of something violent in the word fist, a part of the body far more often associated with punching, pounding or the breaking of facial bones. As the man points in the direction of someone who may be Tenia, more sexual violence is nearly enacted as Marcus finds himself in the position of being forcefully taken by this supposed Tenia. 

That's when the murder occurs. Pierre (Albert Dupontel), Marcus's friend, and a man who also once loved Alex, steps in to rescue his friend. He does so by bashing the supposed Tenia with a fire extinguisher. Here, again, Noe's camera is as much an accomplice to the action as it is capturing the image. The movement of Noe's camera as Pierre proceeds to finish the job of bashing in this man's skull is stomach churning, nearly as much the sick, twisted, gross mess that is the man's face as Pierre's assault increases in violence. 

What has led to this violence we will soon find. Again, Irreversible unfolds from the end to the beginning. We follow Marcus and Pierre through Marcus' single minded pursuit of Tenia, his intent is revenge and when we see what he is intending to avenge, we come to understand his feelings. Marcus' beloved, Alex (Monica Bellucci) is in a coma after having been sexually assaulted in a scene that has become infamous for its dedication to the true horror of rape. 

I am going to use the word rape because that visceral description is more truthful. Calling this sexual assault is far too sanitary for what happens to Alex. Alex is raped. This man, Tenia, who we find is not the man that we've just seen Marcus and Pierre beat to death, is a vile, rotten, bit of scum. We see him first assaulting another woman in this underground tunnel. When Alex objects, Tenia turns to her and enacts a scene of gut wrenching, horrific sexual violence. 

Whether you find this depiction of rape offensive or exploitative is purely subjective. I am not here to argue with you about that. If you are offended by this scene or find it to be exploitative of the crime of rape, I understand and respect your feelings. I can also identify with you in that, when I saw Irreversible following its controversial debut at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, which made headlines for audiences walking out in droves during this scene, I also found the scene deeply offensive. I thought Gaspar Noe was a sick individual for committing such degradation to film. 

20 plus years later, I've grown up a bit. I'm less of a hothead, less prone to a hot take. Watching Irreversible today, I found the scene horrifying but understandably so. Noe wants you, the audience, to confront fully what happened to Alex. The scene is unflinching and Noe's unmoving, unblinking camera, fully static for the first time in the film, on the ground at the same level as Belluci's Alex, forces us to identify with Alex, to feel her horror. 

Noe has rightly pointed out that having the camera moving in this scene places you not in Alex's position but rather in the position of the man assaulting her. It changes the dynamic of the scene, it becomes more artificial and exploitative, as if the camera were searching for bits to show you that you could see if you were there looking around at what was happening. Holding the camera at floor level, keeping us fully in Alex's space, puts us fully at the mercy of the situation. 

Find my full length essay at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review The Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm (2005) 

Directed by Terry Gilliam

Written by Ehren Kruger

Starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Headey, Monica Bellucci, 

Release Date August 25th, 2005

Published August 25th, 2005 

Director Terry Gilliam's unrelenting clashes with the powers that be have become Hollywood legend. From Brazil to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen to his famously incomplete The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, chronicled in the documentary Lost In La Mancha, Mr. Gilliam has chafed against studio orders as far back as his days as a cartoonist for the famed Monty Python.

Given his proclivity for challenging authority it seemed more than a little unusual that  Gilliam would go to work for noted control freak Harvey Weinstein for his latest film. Not surprisingly, this film also became mired in another of Mr. Gilliam's battles and has suffered for it. After languishing on the shelf for nearly two years, the compromised vision of Mr. Gilliam and Mr. Weinstein is now onscreen in the mixed up form of The Brothers Grimm.

Conflict is what marks all of The Brothers Grimm. From the behind the scenes issues between Gilliam and Weinstein such as the casting of Lena Headey over the director's first choice Samantha Morton to the conflict of the films script vs it's tone and the conflict of the films budget and special effects. Finally the conflict between Miramax and Disney that played at least a small part in the film being shelved for nearly 2 years.

Terry Gilliam nearly quit the picture after the brothers Weinstein, Harvey and Bob said no to casting Samantha Morton in the role of Angelika that finally went to the little known Lena Headey. This was followed closely by the firing of Gilliam's cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, reportedly because he worked too slowly.

Then there is the script credited to Ehren Kruger, famous for his weak-kneed horror scripts The Ring and its sequel. Mr. Gilliam claims the Writers Guild gave Mr. Kruger credit, though it was he and writing partner Tony Grisoni that delivered much of the final product.  Gilliam and Grisoni carry a credit after Mr. Kruger's as "Dress Pattern Makers".

Finally, rumored battles over the budget, compromised by the loss of MGM as a producing partner with Miramax, lead to production being shut down. Mr. Gilliam left the project long enough to complete a whole other film, Tideland. When he returned he completed reshoots, music ,and effects though not necessarily to anyone's satisfaction. The special effects in Brothers Grimm seem especially compromised. The bad cartoon CGI that brings to life the films werewolf is video game quality at best. CGI effects are still among the most expensive elements of filmmaking so one does not have to speculate as to what aspect of the film suffered the most from budget constraints.

One element of the film that survived all of this conflict is the performance of Matt Damon. As Will Grimm the huckster hustler of the Brothers, Damon turns on the charm and shows a flair for comedy that he has famously said he is terrified of. Mr. Damon would much rather play dramatic roles but when the opportunity to work with Terry Gilliam arose, he fought to take part and step outside his comfort zone.  He was initially offered the quieter part of Jakob that eventually went to Heath Ledger. The film is better for  Damon's effort.

The same cannot be said of Mr. Ledger who struggles with the more subdued role. It is ironic that Johnny Depp was once rumored for this part because Jakob as played by Mr. Ledger is a litany of mannerisms very reminiscent of Mr. Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of The Caribbean crossed with his effeminate intellectual Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow. Homage is not a bad thing but here it only serves to make one wonder how Mr. Depp might have really played the role.

Matt Damon stars as Wilhelm Grimm, the snake oil salesman of the famous Brothers Grimm. With his brother Jakob, Wil sells stories of witches and enchantment to the villagers of hinterland Germany in the 1800's. Utilizing Jakob's scientific wizardry and knowledge of folklore, the brothers stage their ghosts and witches and lure the villagers into paying to get rid of them.

It's a profitable racket until invading French soldiers capture the brothers and force them to take on a real case of enchantment. Lead by General Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce) and his second in command, the torturous Cavaldi (Peter Stormare), the French want the brothers to determine whether a series of disappearances in a small German countryside forest are the work of hucksters like themselves or something more sinister.

With Cavaldi in tow the Brothers head for the forest with the help of a female guide, Angelika (Lena Headey) whose father and two sisters also disappeared in this forest. Once inside the group comes to a gothic tower with no visible entrance. Inside the tower is the cursed Mirror Queen whose enchantments are directly related to the missing girls. They also encounter a werewolf and trees that come to life with bloodthirsty intentions.

The plot is adventurous and fun in description but in execution it's mixed up and very confused. Brothers Grimm lurches uncomfortably between family friendly adventure and surreal gothic horror. Director Terry Gilliam is certainly comfortable with the surreal part but the family friendly adventure has never been his forte and you can sense a conflict of tone between Ehren Kruger's safe script and Gilliam's darker tones.

Movie Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) 

Directed by Jon Turteltaub 

Written by Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Matt Lopez 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci

Release Date July 14th, 2010 

Published July 14th, 2010

Is Nicolas Cage evolving into the next Christopher Walken? Sure, Cage is a bigger star than Walken has ever been but they share a very particular oddity that bonds them. As Cage gets older his appeal becomes ever more Walken-esque as audiences have come to anticipate and crave his peculiarity.

”The Sorcerer's Apprentice” gives Cage a terrific character in which to find his weird. Balthazar Blake is 1200 year old Sorcerer who was an apprentice to the Merlin of Arthurian legend. Tasked with finding Merlin's direct descendent, Balthazar finds himself in modern day New York pursuing a guy named Dave (Jay Baruchel) while dodging his longtime nemesis Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina).

Naturally, Horvath wants to unleash some all encompassing evil and it will be up to Balthazar and Dave to stop it. Along the way, Dave will meet a girl, Becky (Teresa Palmer) and Balthazar will pass along to Dave a number of lessons in sorcery while becoming not just a mentor but a father figure. Well, more of a crazy uncle really.

Nicolas Cage as crazy uncle is, of course, a natural. In “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” Cage actually dials down the crazy to a steady boil but those crazy eyes still twinkle and his fans will not be the least bit disappointed. The fun of a Cage performance in a family friendly flick like this is the unlikely potential that he could fly off the handle at any moment.

Well, Cage remains fully in control and fully family friendly in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” but those crazy eyes, that wild hair and that which can only be described as his 'Cage-ness' looks as if it could bubble over at any moment. Cage is on the verge of a meltdown or train wreck at any moment and he is the only actor for which those things can be a good thing.

Cage was a wreck in “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and delivered one of the finest performances of his career. The same could be said of his comic book hero daddy in “Kick Ass” and his Oscar winning performance in “Leaving Las Vegas.” Any of which could have toppled over into parody or unintentional satire. Then there are movies like “Con Air” or “The Rock” or “The Wicker Man” where the train wreck combines with a plane crash and a car wreck leaving the audience in awe of his sheer brainless awfulness. Ah, but we still couldn't stop watching.

”The Sorcerer's Apprentice” thrives on Cage's near perfect level of lunacy. Unfortunately, when Cage isn't on screen in his wacky sorcerer's hat and unwashed do “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” bogs down and becomes a bit of a bore. Thankfully, Cage is never gone for long and in the final act “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” really finds it's footing as a big action, big effects summer movie.

Hey mom and dad, wanna see a live action kids movie that you don't need to bring a book or magazine too? “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” has just enough ingenuity and energy to keep you from being too bored and more importantly it will keep the kids engaged.

And finally there is the Mickey Mouse/”Fantasia” tribute that parents and kids can both love. The scene featuring Baruchel, some enchanted mops and buckets and a touch of that classic “Fantasia” score by Peter Dukas is a wonderful homage that surprisingly doesn't feel shoehorned in to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” but rather feels elegantly immersed into this story. More importantly, it's just plain fun.

Movie Review Shoot'em Up

Shoot'em Up (2007) 

Directed by Michael Davis

Written by Michael Davis 

Starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci 

Release Date September 7th, 2007

Published September 7th, 2007

What do you get when you mix Quentin Tarentino, Robert Rodriguez, the Wachowski brothers, Sam Peckinpah and Bugs Bunny? You get the sly, ultraviolent action flick Shoot'Em Up starring Clive Owen. Directed by Michael Davis, Shoot'Em Up is arguably the most violent movie of all time. It's also one of the biggest laughs of 2007. Part spoof and part hardcore action pic, Shoot'Em Up is the unholy culmination of the culture of violence in cinema.

Oh, and it's just damn entertaining.

When we meet Smith (Clive Owen), the ostensible hero of Shoot'em Up, he's sitting on a bus bench eating a raw carrot. Is he waiting for the bus? Is he a homeless guy? We have no idea. We can tell however, that when a frightened, pregnant woman, obviously in labor, runs by and is chased after by a man with a gun, that Smith is terribly annoyed to have his vegetable chomping idyll disturbed.

Involving himself in the situation, Smith takes out the guy with the gun. Unfortunately, that isn't the only guy with a gun who wants this woman and her baby dead. Indeed, an entire team of assassins, led by Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti), wants to make sure that mother and son do not get out alive. They do get mom but not before Mr. Smith helps her give birth, cutting the cord with a 9 millimeter shot.

This further offends Mr. Smith's delicate sensibilities and thus begins a war between hundreds of trained killers and one man with a gun and a baby.

Shoot'em Up is the most over the top violent movie in history. Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Seagal on their best day never fired this many bullets or killed this many bad guys. Nor have any of those action legends dispatched bad guys in so many unique, violent and comical ways. The violence, as directed by Michael Davis is a riff on those classic action cliches cemented in the 80's action classics like Rambo or Commando.

Shoot'Em Up at once is a loving homage to hardcore violence and an Airplane-esque send up of any film that ever tried to play this type violence as straight dramatic action. It's a difficult balancing act that is pulled off to near perfection by director Michael Davis. The director is aided greatly by cinematographer Peter Pau who gives every scene a hyper-realized stylishness.

The only problem with Shoot'Em Up comes when it tries to be about something other than being a violence delivery system. The conspiracy theory at the center of the plot is comical but treated with such seriousness and cynicism that it becomes a burden and a drag on the fun of the goofball violence that is the raison d'etre of Shoot'Em Up.

The Bugs Bunny allusions in Shoot'em Up are an endless source of humor. Whether it's Smith's love of carrots, his many endless escapes or his pitch perfect delivery of "What's Up Doc" after dispatching a bad guy. It all works to great comic effect. The carrot is a sensational, unexpected running gag. Keep an eye on the many uses of the carrot, including a visual pun on carrots being good for your eyesight.

That Clive Owen is still not a major star is a shock to me. Owen is both a skilled actor and a charismatic presence and a handsome fella. And yet he can't seem to break through at the box office. His terrific performance in last year's Children Of Men escaped both audience and awards attention. The thriller Derailed was a sleazy mistake while Closer was another mysterious failure.

Only Sin City has been proven a success but not one that Owen claims for himself (ensemble cast, popular director and graphic novel). Shoot'Em Up succeeds fully on Owen's star presence and gruff charisma. Smith is a reluctant hero at first but quickly becomes motivated and extremely violent for reasons that are entirely his own.

Paul Giamatti is a terrific foil as a comic bad guy. Though he elicits some big laughs, Giamatti ably delivers more menace than you might expect from the sensitive sad sack from the Oscar nominated Sideways or the avuncular artist of American Splendor. Giamatti knows his way around a fire arm but it is in directing his endless horde of henchmen where this character comes to life. The humorous bumbling of the bad guys and Giamatti's priceless apoplexy are golden moments in Shoot'em Up.

Violent to a degree that would turn Sam Peckinpah's head, Shoot'em Up is at once an homage to and a send up of classic Schwarzenegger-Stallone-Van Damme action epics. No film has likely fired this many bullets or dropped this many bodies and done so with as much style and wit. That is not to say that I loved Shoot'Em Up. The plot is beyond ludicrous and the various twists and conspiracies become rather irritating.

Nevertheless, the violence is so entertaining and Clive Owen is so much fun, I have to recommend Shoot'Em Up.

Movie Review Tears of the Sun

Tears of the Sun (2003) 

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Written by Alex Lasker, Patrick Cirillo 

Starring Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser, Tom Skerritt

Release Date March 7th, 2003 

Published March 6th, 2003 

In researching Tears of The Sun I came across the strange revelation that the film was initially founded as a vehicle for Bruce Willis' Die Hard series. It began its life as Die Hard 4:Tears of the Sun. You think I'm making that up, and I wish I were but no. Thankfully, someone figured there was no plausible reason for John McClain to be in Africa during a tribal civil war so the storyline was changed to have Willis play a different fictional tough guy. The film still has the action flourish of a Die Hard movie but the character’s name is different.

In Tears Of The Sun, Willis is LT Waters, a special forces leader assigned to drop into the middle of a country in the midst of a civil war to rescue a missionary and her staff. Of course if it were that simple there wouldn't be much of a movie. The missionary is Dr. Lena Hendricks (Monica Bellucci), the wife of a murdered American doctor. When Waters and his crew arrive in her camp to rescue her the doctor refuses to leave without her people, forcing Waters to accept a compromise. Anyone who can walk can come with her. The doctor’s staff of two nurses and a priest decide to stay behind and care for the remaining patients.

Despite his promise, Waters has no plans to break from his mission and when they arrive at their exit point the doctor’s patients are left behind while the doctor is forced onto a helicopter to be taken to an awaiting aircraft carrier. Intent on simply accomplishing his mission Waters’s conscience is tested when the helicopter passes back over the hospital and finds it in flames with the bodies of its remaining patients strewn over the ground. Knowing that the same fate awaits the patients he left behind, Waters turns the helicopter around, determined to help the remaining patients to the border of a friendly ally.

Director Antoine Fuqua packs the film with action flourishes and a cast of recognizable supporting players including Cole Hauser, Isaiah Washington and Tom Skerrit as Willis' commanding officer. The casting is excellent and the recognizable character actors earn our sympathy simply through familiarity. This however is Willis' show and the action star hasn't been this good since The Sixth Sense. Stoic and studied, Willis has not only the look of a tough guy marine but the fighting spirit that one would hope to find in all of our soldiers.

That's not to say Tears of The Sun doesn't have its troubles. Where the action scenes are exciting and well staged, the surrounding scenes are a little thin. When bullets aren't flying the film stalls, and when a twist is thrown in about half way through, it does little to change that. Nevertheless, with Fuqua's sure handed direction and Willis' fine performance, Tears of The Sun has just enough action to hold the audience's attention from beginning to end.

Movie Review: The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ (2004) 

Directed by Mel Gibson

Written by Mel Gibson, Benedict Fitzgerald 

Starring Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern, Sergio Rubini 

Release Date February 25th, 2004 

Published February 24th, 2004 

As controversy swirls about Mel Gibson’s intentions in writing and directing his idea of Jesus’ Passion, you could almost forget about the movie itself. That finally changes on Ash Wednesday when the film hits theaters nationwide and everyone can finally see what it is they have been talking about. What they will see is a spectacularly realized period piece, a moving and evocative piece about the ultimate in suffering. Never before has the suffering of Jesus Christ, the man many believe to be the savior of mankind, been so amazingly and brutally realized on film.

Jim Caviezal takes on the tremendous task of playing Jesus Christ. As we meet him Christ is praying in a forest seemingly unaware that his disciple Judas is at the temple betraying him. Soon Judas, with Jewish soldiers in tow, is standing before Jesus and slowly realizing his terrible mistake. After a brief scuffle during which Christ heals a soldier wounded by his disciple Peter, Jesus is arrested and beaten as he is led to the temple. There, his religious opponents, a powerful Jewish sect called the Pharisees, wait to put Jesus on trial.

Actually it’s not so much a trial as a public lynching where Jesus is once again beaten and not surprisingly found guilty, though of what crime we are uncertain. The Pharisee, led by Caiaphas, wants to put Jesus to death but their religion forbids it. However there is no such preclusion in Roman law and so Jesus is brought to the region’s Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopov).

Here is where the film’s most controversial element comes in. The charge of Antisemitism against the film hinges, for some, on the portrayal of Pilate. In the Passion plays of the dark ages, when Jews were blamed for Christ’s death, Pilate was played as an ineffectual wavering leader who tried to spare Christ’s life. After 1968 and the Vatican 2 council, the church made clear their official position that the Jews were not responsible and that it was Pilate, the brutal dictator, who was responsible for Christ’s persecution.

It’s very difficult to parse this fairly because both sides have a fair argument. Gibson’s film does portray Pilate as wanting to spare Jesus while a bloodthirsty mob stands by calling for his crucifixion. However, to say that no Jews, especially the Pharisee had nothing to do with it is also intellectually dishonest. Gibson does go on to portray many Jews who decry Christ’s brutal beating by Roman guards, but whether they are enough to combat the charge of Antisemitism will be up to each individual viewer. Do I think the film and Mr. Gibson are Anti-Semitic? No, but I can see where some people might.

The thrust of The Passion of The Christ is Christ’s suffering, from being punched and kicked by Jewish soldiers during his arrest and trial, to his scourging in the Roman courtyard as Pilate tries to placate the mob without crucifying Jesus, to his brutal bloody walk with the cross on his back to the mountaintop and finally his crucifixion. Some 90 minutes of almost non-stop brutal violence. So brutal that many will walk out and some will become physically ill. This is horror-film-quality violence.

This is one of the hardest films that I have ever watched, but the violence is also very compelling and moving. The scourging and whipping goes on and on and when you think it’s over, they roll Christ onto his bloodied back and continue the beating on his chest. The sequence is nine minutes long and even those with strong stomachs will be hard pressed to watch the whole thing.

Jim Caviezal deserves an Oscar nomination simply for all the punishment he takes. His performance is strongest when he is suffering and praying. His performance in scenes where he is not being bloodied is rather typical of the number of actors who have played the role before, beatific, obtuse, but innately intelligent and spiritual.

Gibson’s direction is strong and steady, his camera witnessing the action, unflinchingly embracing the brutality. Academy Award nominee Caleb Deschanel gives the film a lush and beautiful look with night scenes bathed in blue, the temple scenes swathed in a fiery orange and giving the final walk to the crucifixion bright blue in the sky and clear browns of the sand and walls of the buildings. The period details in costume and production design are flawless.

While I have a great deal of admiration for the film, the artistry of it’s production and the compelling story, I couldn’t escape a feeling of distance from the material that I can only attribute to my religious difference with Mr. Gibson. That I am not a Christian put a distance between myself and the deeply emotional connection that seems to be the intended effect of the film. For the devout, The Passion Of The Christ will be an emotional affirmation of their faith. For others, it’s a remarkable artistic experience but not a wholly satisfying one.