LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT (2016)

Genre: Drama
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Tye Sheridan, Ciarán Hinds, Ayelet Zurer
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: M18 (Some Nudity)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/lastdesertmovie

Opening Day: 23 June 2016

Synopsis: Last Days in the Desert follows Jesus (Ewan McGregor) in an imagined chapter from his forty days of fasting and praying in the desert. On his way out of the wilderness, he struggles with the Devil, also played by McGregor, over the fate of an ordinary family in crisis, setting for himself a dramatic test with distinctly human conflicts.

Movie Review:

Rodrigo García’s "Last Days in the Desert" stands out from the crowds of cynical, pandering “faith-based” movies that have been released in recent times (think “Risen” and The Young Messiah”) with its attempt to reach out to non-believers by focusing not on the divinity but humanity of Jesus Christ.

While most depictions of Jesus Christ in these movies are rooted in the assumption that being half-man and half-divine ultimately made him neither, "Last Days in the Desert" takes a different approach and considers how this status may have made him both human and divine rather than belonging to neither group.

The notion of the movie being able to hold with equal weight the truth of Jesus Christ being fully human and fully divine is appealing for these two elements seem contradictory in our human understanding even if we theologically accept that to be the truth.

Alas, García doesn’t quite tread that balance that well and doesn’t quite seem to be able to manage to merge Jesus Christ’s two states/identities together. When he does show Christ’s humanity and vulnerability in this relatively short depiction of Christ’s struggle with the devil, it is typically at the expense of his divinity. It comes across as Christ is switching between the roles and taking one role over the other rather than simultaneously being both divine and human.

Early in García’s movie, Christ (as played by Ewan McGregor) is depicted as very human person with flaws and imperfections. He is lost, confused, perplexed as he shuffles around in rags and lets loose a loud and big fart. His divinity is not clear to us unless his internal monologues where he seeks assistance from a higher being is meant to allude to that divinity. Instead, we see only his struggles, both physical and emotional, as he exchanges banter with the devil who appears in the form of, you guess it, Christ but with more of a furrow in his brow and perhaps a hint of an evil glint. Which is quite a literal interpretation of the term “inner demon” indeed.

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki does amazing things with natural lighting (yes, natural lighting), making you never realising that this was actually shot four hours away from Los Angeles. The set is done up in such a way that you are convinced you are back in an era where the population was significantly smaller (think thousands instead of millions) and you are magically transported to the world that Christ likely lived in during his days.

But the emptiness of the set is not the only emptiness about this movie. The movie lacks a rhythm (unless the absence of a rhythm is meant to be some kind of paradoxical rhythm) and the lack of people/characters in this movie creates a sense that you are in an unreal void-like world where this entire movie is really just a fictional story rather than an actual narrative of something that unfolded or is unfolding before your eyes. Although McGregor does a commendable job, switching between Christ and the devil, the compassion he brings to Christ and the subtle evilness he brings to the devil is barely enough to sustain your interest. It’s also difficult to feel for a family who constantly reminds you that they are just there for the purpose of testing Christ and really, they don’t mean much otherwise.

A pity though because even if García recognised that he couldn’t tread the balance between the divine and human elements and simply let one dominate, this may have been more of a narrative rather than a parable.

Movie Rating:

(While it has amazing technical elements and details, moments of “Last Days in the Desert” do feel as dry as sand)

Review by Katrina Tee