Netflix is getting a jump on the Christmas season by debuting a new faith-based film this week, the stars of which include Academy Award-winner Anthony Hopkins and which will revisit the timeless Biblical story of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ — as well as related events, including Jesus’ parents fleeing the murderous wrath of King Herod.
Mary, from director D.J. Caruso, is an uplifting coming-of-age story that dramatizes the story of the Nativity from a fresh perspective. The focus here is on the life of Mary of Nazareth, the young woman who as a virgin would give birth to Jesus. From Netflix’s summary of the movie, which hits the streamer on Dec. 6: “Chosen to bring the Messiah into the world, Mary (Noa Cohen) is shunned following a miraculous conception and forced into hiding. When King Herod (Anthony Hopkins) orders a murderous hunt for her newborn baby, Mary and Joseph (Ido Tako), go on the run — bound by faith and driven by courage — to save his life at all costs.”
To bring these events to life on the small screen, the streaming giant says that a wide range of religious scholars and leaders were consulted. The broad strokes of Mary’s life, of course, are well known. After Jesus’ miraculous conception, King Herod — paranoid about the perceived threat to his rule posed by the Messiah — orders a murderous hunt for the child, which sends Mary and her husband Joseph on the run.
It’s at this point that I’m going to stand by a point I made in a previous post. Namely, that almost anytime Hollywood wades into Biblical content, the pendulum tends to swing too far in the direction of entertainment rather than toward accuracy based on the source material. You can see what I mean yourself by checking out the trailer below, but the long and short of it is that the Bible doesn’t say much at all about the lives of Mary and Joseph. And there are definitely some anachronistic, modern ideas that seem to have been inserted into the film.
I know it sounds like I’m nitpicking, but I think anyone for whom this is an important story is very much allowed to do so — especially when the director here is known for a movie about a serial killer (2007’s Disturbia). Having said that, I can certainly appreciate the movie for what it’s trying to do. “Love will save the world,” for example, is a powerful line coming from the mother of Jesus. Likewise, when Mary tells what I presume to be an angel that it’s not possible for her to conceive a child, being a virgin. “All things are possible,” the angel replies, foreshadowing what’s to come.