VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kirpianuscus ...if you are theirs fan.or if the religious films are yous favorite genre. because the only virtue of film is to do a larger portrait of Mary. not uninspired, not without few special notes but not real convincing. Christian Bale has the bad luck to be associated with too many great roles for be more than another actor acting Jesus. and the story is far to be different by many other adaptations.in fact, the presence of the lead actors, only the presence, represents the good point of the film. and, sure, the obvious desire to do a decent work. and if it is not easy to define it more than a memorable movie, the cause is only the impressive number of the films about The Savior.

Desertman84 Mary,Mother Of Jesus is a TV movie that doesn't venture far from biblical accounts to dramatize the life of the Virgin Mary.It stars Melinda Kinnaman as young Mary, Perrilla August as the older Mary, David Threlfall as Joseph, and Toby Bailiff and Christian Bale as, respectively, the younger and adult Jesus.The TV movie gets off to a promising start by showing Mary to be a resourceful and brave teenager, as she stands up to Roman soldiers who come thundering on horseback into her village. Then it proceeds chronologically, and the major events of Mary's life, and the life of Jesus, are played out in dramatic fashion. Mary is portrayed as having to face a series of struggles and tests of faith, from the time when she is terrified to meet the messenger of God who foretells the birth of the Messiah to her witnessing the brutal scene of her son's crucifixion.It isn't bad at all, and it certainly is earnest.In less than two hours however, we are whisked through the early womanhood and life of Mary, as well as Jesus's 33 years. It's a whirlwind tour, but not an unpleasant one. Christian Bale is a rather young Jesus, but, like everyone else involved here, very sincere.As it deals with material that will, of course, be familiar to most viewers, an unavoidable problem is that there are few surprises as it takes some artistic license to the script as it attempts to fill in some nuances of Mary's life.Unfortunately,it seems forced and somewhat incoherent.But overall,it will remain a decent film especially with Christians who are looking for a material about the Virgin Mary.

uds3 Hard to know what to make of this. I'm inclined to say overall I didn't like it, but only because it doesn't sit right with me. Production wise its an earnest enough little affair, obviously trying to give Mary a bit more of the limelight here, in fact Pernilla August is downright excellent, just the right blend of strength and humility - she simply doesn't look like the mother of Jesus!Christian Bale emotes and gives us a hands-on Jesus, but the "know wot I mean" Brit accents (for me at least) totally sink it, Michael Mears as John the Baptist especially. OK so Robert Ryan's accent in KING OF KINGS was no closer the mark, but he had the presence to carry it off! Another problem, associating Christian Bale forever as Patrick Bateman in AMERICAN PSYCHO, the idea of him, of all people playing Jesus just doesn't cut it with me.OK KING OF KINGS was syrupy, Hollywoodesque, whatever you want to believe, but in the minds of little children throughout the world (and mine too if the truth be told), Jeffrey Hunter will be there waiting patiently for us in Heaven with outstretched arms, not Christopher Bale or any one of the other two dozen or so actors have taken up the cross in the name of acting.

mermatt This TV-movie is well-intentioned but mechanical. I knew from the opening that there was a problem with the production when the opening narrative was printed on the screen and read at the same time with a voice that sounded like the station-break announcer.The film just goes through the motions and gives us every cliche of second-rate Biblical movies including Jesus as a fair-skinned Anglo-Saxon. Christian Bale does what he can with the material but is terribly mis-cast. His mother is presented as a politically-correct feminist who apparently is responsible for Jesus' teachings and parables which were, according to the plot, the bedtime stories she told Jesus when he was a child.The sets and costumes are good, but the performances are flat and perfunctory. What we get here is a shallowness reminiscent of school plays. The Gospels are condensed into a 2 hour TV movie that has the profundity of a Readers' Digest version of the Bible.