NOAH (2014) co-written and directed by Darren Aronofsky
It is always interesting to see what child actors do once
they reach adulthood. The Addams Family films are a case in point. Christina
Ricci has gone on from playing Wednesday to a host of many and varied roles
whereas Jimmy Workman, who played Pugsley alongside her, only appeared in two or
three more films before retiring from acting and he now earns a living behind the camera doing
technical work. But the young actors who appeared in the Harry Potter films
have a much larger audience watching their every move, particularly via social
media which is something Ricci and actors of her generation didn't have to contend with, at least not in their teenage years and early twenties.
Emma Watson’s first post-Potter role was a small part in My Week With Marilyn but she made a bold
statement of intent with her performance in The Perks of
Being a Wallflower. Gone was the awkwardness of having to kiss Rupert Grint
in the final Harry Potter film – in …Wallflower not only was there snogging
with co-star Logan Lerman but her character dressed up in full Rocky Horror
garb which, one suspects, is a million miles away from anything Hermione would ever have done.
But on to Noah in
which she found herself working once more with Lerman but not as his love
interest, rather as his step-sister. Seemingly Watson shed tears of joy when
she learned that she had won the role of Noah’s step-daughter Ila as she would
be working with the likes of Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins. With the other
main characters being played by Ray Winstone and Jennifer Connelly this
certainly looked like a film worth watching.
When we first see Ila she is running through a forest being
pursued by her stepbrother Shem, played by Douglas Booth. He catches up with
her and we see that their relationship is rather more passionate than you might
usually find with step-siblings but then as their family is living in
isolation, being the last descendants of Seth, (third son of Adam and Eve)
there is rather a lack of young women around. This is a source of constant
frustration for brother Ham who spends much of the film moping around generally
feeling sorry for himself.
Ila is infertile due to an injury sustained in childhood but
this is magically reversed by Noah’s grandfather, played by Hopkins. Despite
his long acting career, I still think of The
Silence of the Lambs whenever I see him and there did seem to be something
slightly menacing about his portrayal of Methuselah. Ila subsequently becomes
pregnant but Noah has decided that it is the will of God that all humans,
including his own family, should be punished and if Ila has a girl, Noah
announces he will kill the new-born infant.
Watson does a pretty good job of showing how frightened Ila
is as her pregnancy come to an end with two baby daughters being born. But they
are spared by Noah who finds he only has love in his heart for his
granddaughters.
We all know how the story ends with the ark finding land and
the final sequence in the film shows the family building a new life, with the
exception of Noah who has grown his own vines and is spending his days getting
drunk in a cave looking out over the ocean. Ham is still as miserable as ever
but decides to give his family a break and wanders off into the wilderness. Seeing
as how there are presumably no other people alive, his future looks bleak and
one can only surmise that he will end up as food for any hungry bears or wolves
he encounters. But all ends well for Ila with her managing to get Noah to see
sense and he is re-united with his wife and family.
Since then Emma Watson has appeared in two thrillers, Regression and Colonia, but I see she has also guested in an episode of the UK
comedy series The Vicar of Dibley. Hopefully we can look forward to many more
varied and enjoyable performances from her in the coming years. Maybe at some
point in the future if another Addams Family film is made, we might see her
cast as Morticia.
Colin Bertram
30 April 2016
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