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At the end of shooting Jesus' last days, actress Marie (Juliette
Binoche), who has played Mary Magdalene, is somehow overcome by a crisis
of fatih, & instead of returning to AMerica to do proper promotion for
the film, she decides to stay in Israel.
Ted (Forest Whitaker) does a talk show on television that is trying to
find the true Jesus, a talk show to which he frequently also
invites Jewish philosphers & the like. However, back at home he is not
quite as eager to find the true Jesus, rather he neglects his pregnant
wife who would need his help & sleeps around.
Eventually, Ted meets Tony Childress, the director/leading man of above
mentioned Jesus film, & is impressed when seeing this film at a
preview. So he decides to invite Tony onto his show. However, when he asks
Tony about Marie, Tony evades his questions ...
Soon enough, Ted sees his own crisis of faith when his wife almost
miscarries & ultimately the baby is born prematurely ... & very
sick. Somehow, only Matrie, whom Ted has finally found out, can give him
comforting words via cell-phone, even if she has just witnessed tragedy
herself, having almost fallen victim to a bombing in Jerusalem.
Tony in the meantime tries to stir up controversy about his film,
seeing those who picket his film as a form of free promotion. But when he
tries to promote his film via the picketers on Ted's show, Ted, who has
gone through hell & back since their last meeting, no longer falls for
his slogens & hits him with some heavy questions instead the
Hollywood-director, used to just giving soundbites, cannot even begin to
answer. & to top it all off, during the interview he suddenly calls
Marie over the phone, who presents a different kind of faith, which Tony
is not prepared for.
Finally, it's the premiere of Tony's Jesus-film, to which Ted, who has
promised to cover the controversy on live tv, does not come, being fed up
withthe media circus. The premiere seems to be prevented by a
pre-scheduled fiasco, a bomb threat (which might be pre-arranged by Tony's
PR-company), when all of a sudden Tony loses his cool & desperately
tries to show his religious vision to the public ...
Earlier films of Abel Ferrara often featured a religious subtext, even
his hard-hitting gangster dramas, but this time, fait h becomes the main
focus of the film, with its three main characters on their quest for
redemption, which can also be seen as a sort of modern re-interpretation
of the New Testament & especially the gospels. & while the film is
somehow weak on narration, it's interesting on a philosophical &/or
spiritual level. However, it's a long way from Ms.45 or Driller
Killer, no matter from which perspective you see it & if you see
that as a good thing or a bad thing.
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amazon.com
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find Mary at adultvideouniverse.com
