A young friend (she's in her 20s, I'm in my 40s) recommended this movie, so I added it to my NetFlix queue. I should know better than to take the recommendations of a 20-something! She found this movie meaningful (I think); I, however, found it really superficial and lightweight.
I was entertained -- it was a pleasant enough little fluff piece that was nice to watch at the end of a long week where I didn't need to engage my brain. The cast was decent and attractive. I think the young lady playing Mary did the best job -- her acting was at least 2-dimensional, whereas the rest of the cast were entirely 1-dimensional. Most of them likable, all of them watchable, but still, completely 1-dimensional.
I think the people responsible for this movie have no idea whatsoever what Christianity is all about, and I say that as an avowed heathen! I do have some Christian friends, and none of them are the hypocritical buffoons this movie purports them to be. In addition, the messages and the characters in this movie are so simplistic, and they so easily throw away their Christian values (which I find hard to believe any real Christian would do, but this goes back to the simplisticness of the entire movie): A married pastor flirts with, regularly meets with, and kisses another woman (Mary's mother, herself supposedly a good Christian woman); Mary acts pleased and delighted that her ex-boyfriend has found a "life partner" (her words; I'm not using the quotes to be snarky, as my two best friends are gay men; I don't have a problem with homosexuality, but it seems implausible to me that a person who firmly believes that homosexuality is against her religion would suddenly do a 180 and be actually happy that her male friend has found a male life partner); good-looking, hip, pastor's son Patrick falls in love with Mary at first sight and remains unwaveringly supportive even after finding out she's pregnant with another person's child (I can barely imagine a young teen being mature enough to accept another man's child, let alone a supposed young Christian teen who (I assume) does not believe in premarital sex); etc, etc.
This movie tries to be a biting, wicked satire, and you can just feel the smugness of the creators of this movie sitting upon their pedestal feeling better than "Christians" (or, more accurately, their cartoonish view of what Christians are), that it's just laughable in its harmlessness. That said, I did watch the movie all the way through and even considered watching it a 2nd time before sealing it up in its little red Netflix envelope. It's nice, brainless entertainment -- in addition to Mary, I also really enjoyed the performances of the young lady who played Cassandra and I enjoyed Macauly Culkin's performance as well.
Finally, I was not surprised AT ALL to find out, while watching the extras on the DVD, that this movie was produced by Michael Stipe! Geez, stick to what you know, man -- music! People like M.Stipe and Bono make me laugh when they try to go beyond the bounds of what they know and are good at, and attempt to lecture the rest of humanity on bigger life issues. Get over yourself, Michael Stipe!
My vote = 3/10 = 1 pt each for Mary, Cassandra, and Roland; -7 for the pomposity of Michael Stipe and the other creators of this weak, 1-dimensional morality play
I was entertained -- it was a pleasant enough little fluff piece that was nice to watch at the end of a long week where I didn't need to engage my brain. The cast was decent and attractive. I think the young lady playing Mary did the best job -- her acting was at least 2-dimensional, whereas the rest of the cast were entirely 1-dimensional. Most of them likable, all of them watchable, but still, completely 1-dimensional.
I think the people responsible for this movie have no idea whatsoever what Christianity is all about, and I say that as an avowed heathen! I do have some Christian friends, and none of them are the hypocritical buffoons this movie purports them to be. In addition, the messages and the characters in this movie are so simplistic, and they so easily throw away their Christian values (which I find hard to believe any real Christian would do, but this goes back to the simplisticness of the entire movie): A married pastor flirts with, regularly meets with, and kisses another woman (Mary's mother, herself supposedly a good Christian woman); Mary acts pleased and delighted that her ex-boyfriend has found a "life partner" (her words; I'm not using the quotes to be snarky, as my two best friends are gay men; I don't have a problem with homosexuality, but it seems implausible to me that a person who firmly believes that homosexuality is against her religion would suddenly do a 180 and be actually happy that her male friend has found a male life partner); good-looking, hip, pastor's son Patrick falls in love with Mary at first sight and remains unwaveringly supportive even after finding out she's pregnant with another person's child (I can barely imagine a young teen being mature enough to accept another man's child, let alone a supposed young Christian teen who (I assume) does not believe in premarital sex); etc, etc.
This movie tries to be a biting, wicked satire, and you can just feel the smugness of the creators of this movie sitting upon their pedestal feeling better than "Christians" (or, more accurately, their cartoonish view of what Christians are), that it's just laughable in its harmlessness. That said, I did watch the movie all the way through and even considered watching it a 2nd time before sealing it up in its little red Netflix envelope. It's nice, brainless entertainment -- in addition to Mary, I also really enjoyed the performances of the young lady who played Cassandra and I enjoyed Macauly Culkin's performance as well.
Finally, I was not surprised AT ALL to find out, while watching the extras on the DVD, that this movie was produced by Michael Stipe! Geez, stick to what you know, man -- music! People like M.Stipe and Bono make me laugh when they try to go beyond the bounds of what they know and are good at, and attempt to lecture the rest of humanity on bigger life issues. Get over yourself, Michael Stipe!
My vote = 3/10 = 1 pt each for Mary, Cassandra, and Roland; -7 for the pomposity of Michael Stipe and the other creators of this weak, 1-dimensional morality play