Don't plan on watching Creation as a light comedy suitable for a Saturday night date movie.
Creation must be watched with full attention and an open mind. It has little to do with the debate that fundamentalists have made it.
It is a movie of two loving parents, four children (one of whom became mortally ill) and the struggle to create a book from a mind, according to the movie, that is tortured and delusional. It is the story of a child whose curiosity parallelled rather tragically an act of an orangutan that brought about her death.
The movie depicts Emma Darwin (Jennifer Connolly) as a strong willed Christian (which Emma was). If you are expecting Ms. Connolly to be as stunning and lively as she was in a Beautiful Mind, you will be disappointed. Here she dares act with little if any makeup, her hair drawn straight back to a bun and parted in the middle. She is more than adequate as a study of a plain strong woman who can stand up to her husband to the point where he is driven almost mad by her unbending religious will. Yet she is not a fanatic. Others may think so, but she really is not. If a viewer is not convinced, consider how she handles reading his manuscript. The movie shows it just the way it happened. It took a marvellous woman to retain her religious beliefs and encourage Darwin to publish.
Darwin himself (wonderfully played by Paul Bettany) is shown as almost mentally ill by what he observes. He has two driving motives: to love his family (especially his oldest daughter Annie) and to find a way of writing the Origin of the Species knowing that it will offend all traditional religious thought on the subject of creation. Particularly odious to him is the fact that his wife believes that he will be permanently separated from God (and from her) should he persist in publishing his book. He half believes that she may be right. A fact that the movie left unstated is that Darwin was trained to be a minister – I think a huge omission. It would have made the complexity of his problem that much deeper.
Though we do not see much of the children (except Annie), what we do get is really well handled. We will hope there is more of Freya Parks to come. She was a very sensitive Etty Darwin with naturalness much beyond her years. She is especially touching as she watches a fox kill a rabbit. Though Annie understands, Etty is more childlike in her response of repulsion, sadness and horror. She is even better displaying affection, if that is possible, when she asks her father to tell the children a story they have not heard.
Annie Darwin (Martha West) caries most of the load for the part the children must play and she is delightful, serious, charming, witty, understanding and above all a lovable girl of about 10 going on 30. Her scene with the photographer and her father cannot be missed. This girl too will make many more movies one hopes.
The great critic Roger Ebert said that Hollywood (he was referring to Creation) believes that all problems can be solved in the bedroom. Maybe that does reflect 2010 more than 1851, but if it is a flaw, it is a minor one.
Creation should be seen not for enlightenment about Darwin or the Origin of Species, or a resoltion to the Fundamentalist debate about religion vs. science, but because it is a good film that has good family values. We see parents who are parents as well as being adults, and children who are children. We need more films like Creation.
Creation must be watched with full attention and an open mind. It has little to do with the debate that fundamentalists have made it.
It is a movie of two loving parents, four children (one of whom became mortally ill) and the struggle to create a book from a mind, according to the movie, that is tortured and delusional. It is the story of a child whose curiosity parallelled rather tragically an act of an orangutan that brought about her death.
The movie depicts Emma Darwin (Jennifer Connolly) as a strong willed Christian (which Emma was). If you are expecting Ms. Connolly to be as stunning and lively as she was in a Beautiful Mind, you will be disappointed. Here she dares act with little if any makeup, her hair drawn straight back to a bun and parted in the middle. She is more than adequate as a study of a plain strong woman who can stand up to her husband to the point where he is driven almost mad by her unbending religious will. Yet she is not a fanatic. Others may think so, but she really is not. If a viewer is not convinced, consider how she handles reading his manuscript. The movie shows it just the way it happened. It took a marvellous woman to retain her religious beliefs and encourage Darwin to publish.
Darwin himself (wonderfully played by Paul Bettany) is shown as almost mentally ill by what he observes. He has two driving motives: to love his family (especially his oldest daughter Annie) and to find a way of writing the Origin of the Species knowing that it will offend all traditional religious thought on the subject of creation. Particularly odious to him is the fact that his wife believes that he will be permanently separated from God (and from her) should he persist in publishing his book. He half believes that she may be right. A fact that the movie left unstated is that Darwin was trained to be a minister – I think a huge omission. It would have made the complexity of his problem that much deeper.
Though we do not see much of the children (except Annie), what we do get is really well handled. We will hope there is more of Freya Parks to come. She was a very sensitive Etty Darwin with naturalness much beyond her years. She is especially touching as she watches a fox kill a rabbit. Though Annie understands, Etty is more childlike in her response of repulsion, sadness and horror. She is even better displaying affection, if that is possible, when she asks her father to tell the children a story they have not heard.
Annie Darwin (Martha West) caries most of the load for the part the children must play and she is delightful, serious, charming, witty, understanding and above all a lovable girl of about 10 going on 30. Her scene with the photographer and her father cannot be missed. This girl too will make many more movies one hopes.
The great critic Roger Ebert said that Hollywood (he was referring to Creation) believes that all problems can be solved in the bedroom. Maybe that does reflect 2010 more than 1851, but if it is a flaw, it is a minor one.
Creation should be seen not for enlightenment about Darwin or the Origin of Species, or a resoltion to the Fundamentalist debate about religion vs. science, but because it is a good film that has good family values. We see parents who are parents as well as being adults, and children who are children. We need more films like Creation.