To enjoy Noah, you need to be able to adhere to the following rules. First, accept that the fallen angels are depicted as rock monsters (yes, that was a spoiler, but you needed to feel that shock now instead of as you watch the film and are busy thinking WTF), and the majority of Noah’s plot and characters do not resemble the original Bible story. Second, you have to believe in your heart that humanity sucks and may not deserve to be saved–not just the bad guys that you hear about on the news, but you, your family and anyone that you love may be guilty or at least capable of great evil. Third, you believe that animals have a raw deal. They are victims of our avarice and whim, eaten and victimized by us, torn from their families, exploited and shown mercy only when it suits us. I could do all of those things and am a huge Darren Aronofsky fan so I loved Noah. If you can do that, then I would recommend that you watch it immediately.
I have a rule. When adapting a well-known story, either remain faithful to the story, but if you depart from the story, remain faithful to the spirit of the story. Aronofsky does the latter and borrows elements from other Old Testament stories such as Abraham and Isaac, Cain and Abel and all the stories of barren women’s answered payers to God to flesh out Noah’s story. In a world that does not understand a God that kills huge swaths of mankind, I always understood that if your creation turned into murderous evildoers, killing them made sense and is justice. What doesn’t make sense is mercy. Aronofsky also struggles with the implications of the fall and asks whether or not humanity deserves another chance or whether our capacity for great evil against our selves (through slavery and gender exploitation) and our fellow Earthlings (all of nature, animals and plants) equals a death sentence.
I was incredibly moved by Aronofsky’s Noah, especially the rock monsters, which feel like they are straight out of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, and Noah’s character arc as a man disturbed and driven mad by seeing man’s capacity for evil and recognizing himself in it then torturing himself from a sense of survivor’s guilt-has he doomed God’s creation once more by being selfish and wasted everything that was done before or was it an act of mercy? Visually Noah shares more in common with Aronofsky’s The Fountain than his more recent films such as The Wrestler or Black Swan. The dark silhouette scene where Noah and his wife are talking during a sunset was evocative and reminiscent of what movie??? I can’t remember, but every moment was haunting even if there were repeated dialogue such as the creation story or repeated visions of the deluge. I may watch it again!
I only regret the one punch that Aronofsky pulled. Even though many disagree about how Ham actually disrespected Noah, I thought that an implied rape would have been appropriate considering the way that Arnofsky’s story depicted Ham. Aronofsky’s Noah may be dark, but it is not without hope and redemption so I think that prevented Aronofsky from descending into such a dark place.