MOVIE REVIEWS: SON OF GOD

It’s a good thing that Son of God is critic-proof. Some reviews of the movie verge on sacrilege, all of them agreeing that it’s far from the greatest story ever told. The New York Times devotes just 298 words to its review by Nicolas Rapold, the briefest movie review in the Times in memory. Rapold writes that it “runs through the scriptural greatest hits of the Passion with the reliability of a Sunday reader. It’s a movie that embraces the nearly pedagogical predictability of lines like ‘Where’s Judas? You seen him?’ or ‘Thomas, stop doubting.'” Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News comments, “He walks on water, heals the sick and raises the dead. But not even Jesus can transform Son of God into a compelling epic.” Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle observed that at a press screening, “a few heathens laughed out loud at some of the stilted dialogue.” However, he noted, more audience members were weeping. “I’m guessing that outside of free critic screenings, more crowds will be in the latter camp, and won’t notice things like an overbearing musical score that doesn’t give viewers a choice what to think. They won’t care that risen-from-the-dead Jesus looks a little like he’s in a Saturday Night Live skit. They won’t immediately think of Monty Python’s Life of Brian when crucified Jesus is talking to a sinner on a neighboring cross.”