I have to start keeping track of what induces me to move a particular movie to the top of my Netflix queue. This time it was "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," which someone must have persuaded me was a must-see. It's not. This story of a man (Casey Affleck) who goes to prison for a crime his pregnant girlfriend (Rooney Mara) committed just didn't quite do it for me. I honestly don't know what the point of the movie was; it was so slow that I thought I must have missed something. I like Affleck well enough (although Andy had a terrible time understanding his quiet drawl), but there just wasn't much to keep us interested.
Yesterday the whole family went to see "Noah." I didn't know a thing about it (except of course that it was going to be a retelling of the biblical story of Noah's ark). A dat later and I still don't know what I thought about the movie! I'm glad I saw it, and it was interesting and exciting and thought-provoking, but it was also really strange—particularly "The Watchers," which did not feel even remotely biblical to me as portrayed, more sci-fi-ish. I mostly enjoyed the struggles of the various characters to follow their hearts and convictions. I'd be interested to hear what any of my readers thought of the movie. (Although if you're going to say you didn't like simply because it doesn't follow the story exactly as presented in Genesis, you can hold your breath. This isn't a documentary, after all, and the story in the Bible, even if you believe it is true, is very short and leaves room for plenty of details to be fleshed in. I'm all for filmmakers embellishing existing stories as they wish.)