Review of Passion Play (2011) by Thomas W — 21 May 2011

Neither passionate nor playful ... Passion Play is woe-fully bad -- really, really, really bad. Washed-up musican Nate (Mickey Rourke - Diner, The Wrestler) is in trouble with a sociopathic gangster named Happy (Bill Murray - Rushmore, Ghostbusters, Zombieland).

We know he is mean and crazy because his name is Happy -- that is the script Passion Play is dealing with. Both characters are shallow and one-dimensional although Murray does a better job with his role than a plastic Rourke.

Dropped-off in the desert to die, Nate comes across a carnival sideshow and meets a birdwoman named Lily played by Megan Fox (Transformers, Jonah Hex). [that wasn't a typo ... a birdwoman]. Lily has the body and face of a human; but has the wings of a bird (she is also compared to an angel).

Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, Vanity Fair) tyrannically keeps a watch on his prized side-show attraction; but her and Nate make a quick escape from the desert to run-off together. The entire plot and story is ludicrous.

Nate is a totally un-likable character and I felt NO sympathy for the adulterous, lying, callous individual (he's the film's hero?!). He lies and practically exchanges Lily's life for his very own .

.. giving her over to the gangster (only deciding to "keep" her when it is too late). Ugh. The story has undercurrents of male possesiveness and sexist beliefs and/or acts. I found it to be awful and degrading all while it is trying to pretend to be some kind of noir-ish fable.

It isn't ... and the end is laughably preposterous. It just doesn't work ... NONE of it. Black Swan II this isn't.