By Gavin Boyle
MARY director D.J. Caruso hopes his movie allows audiences to see the mother of Jesus in a new light.
“I would like [audiences] to see the humanity and to see the courage and the grace it took. I mean, when you’re a young girl and this is thrust upon you, you’re gonna deliver the greatest gift the world has ever gotten, and it’s all coming through you, and that responsibility with that comes a lot of angst, a lot of pain, a lot of struggle,” Caruso told Movieguide®. “And I think I want people to see her strength, and I want them to understand that, yes, she was chosen and, yes, she was guided, but she made a choice to say, like, ‘Let it be me.’”
Many verses throughout the Gospels paint a picture of how Mary reacted to being the Lord’s chosen servant throughout her life. In Luke 1:38, for example, after being told that she will be the mother of the savior, she welcomes the news as a gift, rather than rejecting the proposition out of fear.
Related: Netflix Acquires Biblical Epic MARY
“‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her,” the passage reads.
Amazingly, MARY was acquired and distributed by Netflix and features academy award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins.
“At this time of my life, I’m drawn to the challenge of complex scripts. As well, the level of the detail given to this production with extraordinary sets, props and costumes — makes me proud to be a part of this,” Hopkins explained.
Unfortunately, those working on the movie took many liberties and introduced plot lines that have no biblical grounding. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
Despite the jeopardy in MARY, the movie appears slow in many places. It has paint-by-numbers exciting moments, then lots of filler. Why people decided to make a TV-14 movie about Mary is inexplicable. Regrettably, most of MARY doesn’t follow the biblical story. Most of the events taking place are extra biblical. For example, after Mary’s born, a “Mother Superior” character places her into convent-like conditions in the temple in Jerusalem. Overall, MARY is excessively unbiblical and confused, with too much blood.
Nonetheless, it is amazing that a movie like MARY was not only distributed by Netflix but bought by the streamer as well. Meanwhile, as long as audiences do not watch the movie expecting to learn new historical facts about Mary, they can still encounter interesting ideas about the amazing woman that she was.
Read Next: 14 Christmas Movies to Stream on Netflix
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