[THE CUSTOM MARY
screens Saturday May 19th at 7:00 pm at the Ohio Independent Film
Festival.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
If you believe, as a good number of
people do, that the Shroud of Turin was used to cover the body of the
crucified Jesus, then it stands to reason there might be some of his
DNA on the object. From there, it's another small leap to the premise
of THE CUSTOM MARY, which is
that one could clone Jesus. The vessel chosen for this purpose is a
modern day virgin Mary (Alicia Marie Sixtos), a pious young Latina
who works at a translation office. That's where she meets Joe (James
Jolly), a young black man who customizes cars, turning them into
lowriders.
The
two start seeing each other, while at the same time the pastor of
Mary's church tells her that a shadowy group wants to use her to
bring about the second coming. Although she has a few doubts (one
would hope), Mary eventually assents to the procedure. When the baby
is born by C-section almost 9 months later on Christmas Day, however,
he isn't quite what the true believers were expecting: The boy is
mute, and his dark skin makes some suspect that the child is perhaps
Joe's rather than the reborn son of God.
Provided
you're the sort who isn't offended outright by this premise, that's a
pretty good set up. Sixtos and Jolly are likeable and talented in the
lead roles, and writer/director Matt Dunnerstick delivers some
interesting visuals as well as some well crafted narration. After a
strong start, though, the movie just runs out of gas. Dunnerstick
tries to keep the tone serious, but he's not able to sell all the
film's bizarre plot elements as being believable. A more over the top
approach akin to something like Alex Cox' REPO MAN
might have better served the tale.
Making a good movie is no easy task,
even under the best circumstances. Just look at all the bad and
mediocre ones that get released. It's even harder to pull off when
you're working with a micro budget. Still, although it
ultimately comes up short, one has to respect the efforts of
Dunnerstick and his cast and crew to make a film this daring and
original. It doesn't completely work, but there's enough here of
interest to make THE CUSTOM MARY
worth a watch. 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
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