Mary (I) (2005)
7/10
Faith, Guilty, Sin, Love and Regret
4 July 2008
Warning: Spoilers
After the conclusion of the shooting of the polemic movie "This Is My Blood" about the life of Jesus performing the role of Maria Magdalene, the successful actress Marie Palesi (Juliette Binoche) feels obsessed by the life of her character and decides to stay in Jerusalem in a quest of faith and self-knowledge to fulfill the emptiness of her life. The selfish and egocentric director Tony Childress (Matthew Modine) returns to New York, where he meets the atheist host of a famous TV show Ted Younger (Forest Whitaker) in the prescreening of his movie. Ted is presenting a series of programs about the life of Jesus Christ and invites Tony to participate as a guest in his show. Meanwhile, Ted has one night stand with Tony's assistant and his upset wife Elizabeth Younger (Heather Graham) has problems with her pregnancy having an early delivery. When the desperate Ted sees the pain of his wife and his premature newborn son, he regrets and feels the need to pray for his beloved family.

Abel Ferrara usually uses Catholic icons in his movies; however, "Mary" is specifically about elements of the Catholicism, such as faith, guilty, sin, love and regret. The story is very well acted by Forest Whitaker, Juliette Binoche and Matthew Modine; however, the screenplay is confused and something is missing to make "Mary" a great movie. Nevertheless, it is an original story and does not disappoint. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Maria" ("Mary")
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