Noah (2014) – Film Review

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel
Actors: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson
Runtime: 138 min
Rating: 14A

Few literary resources exist that are as ripe with storytelling possibilities as that of the Bible. Whether one considers this tome to hold truth or myth, it cannot be denied that the narratives within its pages have fascinated for many years and have saturated our culture. Everybody may know that story of Noah and his Ark, but nobody save director Darren Aronofsky has imagined it quite like this. His film Noah (2014) conveys this well-known tale in a whole new manner, taking liberties and adding new material, but overall, creating a retelling that should offend none. The story of Noah as presented in the Bible is actually very brief, spanning a mere few pages, and the creation of a feature length epic required much fleshing out. Aronofsky’s ideas are profound and thought provoking, and lead to an exciting new Biblical epic unlike any we have ever seen before.

In Aronofsky’s version of this story, Noah (Russell Crowe) lives with his wife Naameh (Jennifer Connelly) and their three sons isolated from the rest of the world. The last descendants of Seth, Noah’s family consists of the only righteous humans on Earth, as all others, being the descendants of Cain, have naturally turned to evil. When Noah receives a vision that he believes to be from an ambiguous Creator, he takes his family to receive guidance from his wise and mystical grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins), and ultimately realizes that the Creator plans to destroy all of humanity with a global flood. It is up to Noah to build an ark to rescue the innocent animals so that they can repopulate the world. Although his family is loving and good hearted, Noah does not believe that it is the intention of the Creator to allow them to live and begin the human race anew, a belief that causes much strife between his family and inner turmoil within himself as he begins to wonder if he has misinterpreted the Creator’s instructions or taken them a bit too far.

Since this Noah is not blessed with clear instructions from his deity, Russell Crowe is allowed to depict him as a man tortured by his own decisions and forced to struggle to interpret his vague visions. In typical fashion, Crowe creates a tormented hero who may perform questionable acts but whose loyalty and inner goodness cannot ever be questioned. These are the kinds of roles that this actor was born to play, and is a pleasure to see him take such an iconic figure and truly make him his own with subtlety and complexity. Connelly portrays a strong and loving wife in Naameh, but it is the young Emma Watson who truly impresses as Noah’s adopted daughter Ila. Watson is forced to go head-to-head with her beloved father figure when he begins to misinterpret the Creator’s instructions, and her impressive performance is both wholly believable and strongly emotional. Anthony Hopkins adds a touch of lightness to a very dark story with his surprisingly sweet and grandfatherly Methuselah, who is able to bestow mystical blessings but is nonetheless a very human character.

At its core, Noah is a big screen epic picture, and does not fail to deliver the thrills and excitement. The cinematography and computer generated imagery is appropriately grand and breathtaking, reminiscent of a Middle Earth type world. Many have been unsure how to take Aronofsky’s addition of the Watchers, fallen angels that he imagines as massive stone giants that aid Noah in the building and protecting of his ark. Although they are only briefly mentioned in the Bible, I liked this addition, as it added to the story, allowing the audience an opportunity to feel real conflictions of emotion, and heightening the overall epic feel of what is ultimately a film with a fantasy theme. Clint Mansell, the man who brought us the iconic soundtracks for films such as Requiem for a Dream (2000), follows through yet again with a soaring score that matches the scope of the work. One aspect of the film that did seem a tad out of place was the costume design; I’m pretty sure I have seen members of my Kensington Market community dressed similarly to Noah and his family, but this anachronism was more amusing than distracting.

Some works based on Biblical stories, such as Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) ask a viewer to completely reconsider their preconceived notions in regards to these well-known tales. Noah, however, simply adds to the story without challenging it in any particular way. The character of Noah still acts in accordance with an all-powerful deity, who, in a key scene involving the Watchers that have sparked so much controversy, still demonstrates mercy and kindness. A direct representation of the Noah story as told in the Bible would have been impossible; upon rereading the tale, one realizes just how brief the story actually is, and how much we as a society have added to it, many without even realizing it. If Sunday School teachers can expand upon this story to make it more accessible and interesting for kids, then there is no reason why a film director should not have the same right in order to create a work with wide, mainstream, and mature appeal. Noah is a grand and epic adventure that will appeal to the religious crowd who are open to a new Biblical interpretation, as well as to those who are simply looking to see Russell Crowe and Darren Aronofsky at their big budget movie making finest.