'Passion Play' Terrible? No Way.

According to Mickey Rourke 'Passion Play' is terrible. "I don't know if you'd even want to watch a slide show of that," he said.

Terrible?! Come on. I think maybe Rourke lacks objectivity, being so close to the project and all. Let's see what the critics said.

THR:

If the degree of laughter at the wrong moments and the number of walkouts at the Toronto International Film Festival are any indication, the film will appeal only to the most fondly indulgent.

Maybe I'm 'most fondly indulgent'.

Cinematical has:

Ultimately, 'Passion Play' is a bi-polar love story rife with strengths and weaknesses.

It's rife with weaknesses, but also rife with strengths. Rife with them. They're everywhere. Here a strength, there a strength, everywhere a strength strength.

Joblo says:

PASSION PLAY is a BAD movie.

Astoundingly bad.

Unfathomably bad.

...

not only the worst film of the year, but perhaps the worst film of any year.

See? Not one reviewer called the movie 'terrible'.

The story has (or perhaps, had) potential. It was a good idea. Sort of a noir fairy tale, which is a jangly clash of genre. Tough to work in. Execution? Don't know. It's screenwriter Mitch Glazer's first time behind the camera (working from a script he wrote). A lot of times it's hard to be objective about your own work. Maybe it needed another pass (although word is Glazer tinkered with the script for some ten or twenty years. It might have needed just one more, what's the word...polish). Maybe the movie has tech issues with camera, working with actors on the nuances of performance, editing choices, et cetera -- skills newbie directors may still be developing. Who knows. Who can say?

So far, I like 'Passion Play'. I admit I haven't seen a slide show yet, just trailers and a few stills, but it looks good. Fair? Serviceable... Okay, okay. It might not be a great movie but I'm betting it's not rife with terribleness.

I can't deny it. I want 'Passion Play' to work. I guess I just like the idea of a movie that has a down-on-his-luck trumpet player, a sad gangster, and an angel. What a cool cast of characters. What an idea. I wish I had conjured that one up.

I don't want to believe the reviews. Don't want to believe Rourke. Just want to see a unique story made into a good movie.

On the other hand, though, 'Passion Play' may have been better off if Glazer had taken the screenplay, thrown in some choice prose, and published it as a short story. However, I'm not taking anybody else's word. Bad reviews be damned, I'm seeing the movie.