Review of The Book of Life (1998) by Eoin H — 24 Oct 2008

Hal Hartley regular Martin Donovan plays Jesus in an end of the Milllenium 60 minute snooze fest.

I rate Donovan greatly. He's got something of a young Donald Sutherland about him in this film. A presence that belies his relatively grim recent filmography. However, even Dononvan in great form as Jesus cannot save this film.

Hartley uses his digital camera to capture a pre-millenium New York as a dreamy, pixellated urban-scape. The affect numbs the movie from any real drama moreso when the dialogue and scenario both decend into the realms of poe faced sincerity when this film is crying out to be farce.

The film is a painful 60 minutes, very much of its time. Like PJ Harvey (playing Jesus' "assistant" Mary Magdelena"), The Book of Life is a 90s relic. A period of concerns and desires that time has largely and too quickly forgotten. A movie TOO of its time, now obscured by a decade and cultural change. What we are left with is formally pretentious and practically inane. But perhaps a viewer in 1999 would have thought entirely differently. But I doubt it.

Hal Hartley seemed to have sought a cultural ghetto of limited audience in the late 90s. Like a street busking filmmaker, he found safety in a limited and temporary audience. Perhaps they too easily can forgive the often slapdash filmmaking here. Perhaps that is the point.