Anthony Hopkins. End of article.
Just kidding. Emma Watson’s in it too, so Noah can’t stand on the strength of casting alone. It can, however, stand on everything else. Even so, let’s begin with the name-dropping.
When you think of Hollywood epic, you tend to think of the likes of Ridley Scott. This one is being brought to us instead by Darren Arronofksy, mostly renowned for the inspiring parable Requiem For a Dream. His dabblings in the epic, the orchestral and the allegoric include The Fountain, the story of the three identities of Hugh Jackman travelling through gold-hued time, space and down-to-earth reality to save his dying wife. The film received mixed reviews and has been labelled as muddled and pretentious, but I rather liked it. Go figure.
Hopkins plays Methusela, wise old grandfather of Noah, which seems quite appropriate. Meanwhile, the titular character spot goes to Russel Crowe, whose CV of historical epic protagonists is swelling like a well-fed mosquito. Perhaps it’s the stocky build and the generous yet slightly scruffy beard growth, or his mastering of what I call “the Jedi voice” – the pronunciation-based, vaguely English accent adopted by actors when unaware of what their character should sound like (credit to Ewan McGregor here). Refuting this thespian method is Ray Winstone, appearing as the inexplicably cockney Tubal-cain, descendent of the murderous Cain of Cain & Abel fame and Noah’s arch-nemesis.
I won’t go into the plot, since most of you will be fully aware of it. Unless I’m a little rusty on my Biblical tales, though, it seems that an interesting new dynamic has been added in the form of Winstone Cain and his band of miscreants. Think for a moment, and imagine this – God gets in touch and tells you he’s going to flood the world. Take your family and two of every animal, or something along those lines. The point, as far as I recall, was to punish mankind. So, what happens when news of the imminent apocalypse and of your giant boat of salvation begins to spread?
That’s right, Ray Winstone shows up. So do hundreds (maybe thousands, depending on Biblical population figures) of others, demanding to know why they can’t get on board. Things get a little rough and you have a siege / bronze melee / beard battle on your hands, right in the middle of your primitive building site when you’re already on something of a tight schedule. Judging by the trailer, this may in fact be the main focus of the plot. Clever. It’s not even certain whether we will see the ark afloat, since it doesn’t look finished or particularly boat-like when the waves come.
Obviously, once again, we’re looking at some serious visuals. Normally I’d raise the issue of the CGI trend and whether things like writing should be prioritised, but this is the story of Noah, so I won’t.
It’s about apocalyptic floods, it has Anthony Hopkins in it and it looks really good.
Just kidding. Emma Watson’s in it too, so Noah can’t stand on the strength of casting alone. It can, however, stand on everything else. Even so, let’s begin with the name-dropping.
When you think of Hollywood epic, you tend to think of the likes of Ridley Scott. This one is being brought to us instead by Darren Arronofksy, mostly renowned for the inspiring parable Requiem For a Dream. His dabblings in the epic, the orchestral and the allegoric include The Fountain, the story of the three identities of Hugh Jackman travelling through gold-hued time, space and down-to-earth reality to save his dying wife. The film received mixed reviews and has been labelled as muddled and pretentious, but I rather liked it. Go figure.
Hopkins plays Methusela, wise old grandfather of Noah, which seems quite appropriate. Meanwhile, the titular character spot goes to Russel Crowe, whose CV of historical epic protagonists is swelling like a well-fed mosquito. Perhaps it’s the stocky build and the generous yet slightly scruffy beard growth, or his mastering of what I call “the Jedi voice” – the pronunciation-based, vaguely English accent adopted by actors when unaware of what their character should sound like (credit to Ewan McGregor here). Refuting this thespian method is Ray Winstone, appearing as the inexplicably cockney Tubal-cain, descendent of the murderous Cain of Cain & Abel fame and Noah’s arch-nemesis.
I won’t go into the plot, since most of you will be fully aware of it. Unless I’m a little rusty on my Biblical tales, though, it seems that an interesting new dynamic has been added in the form of Winstone Cain and his band of miscreants. Think for a moment, and imagine this – God gets in touch and tells you he’s going to flood the world. Take your family and two of every animal, or something along those lines. The point, as far as I recall, was to punish mankind. So, what happens when news of the imminent apocalypse and of your giant boat of salvation begins to spread?
That’s right, Ray Winstone shows up. So do hundreds (maybe thousands, depending on Biblical population figures) of others, demanding to know why they can’t get on board. Things get a little rough and you have a siege / bronze melee / beard battle on your hands, right in the middle of your primitive building site when you’re already on something of a tight schedule. Judging by the trailer, this may in fact be the main focus of the plot. Clever. It’s not even certain whether we will see the ark afloat, since it doesn’t look finished or particularly boat-like when the waves come.
Obviously, once again, we’re looking at some serious visuals. Normally I’d raise the issue of the CGI trend and whether things like writing should be prioritised, but this is the story of Noah, so I won’t.
It’s about apocalyptic floods, it has Anthony Hopkins in it and it looks really good.
RSS Feed
