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Title: Creation
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is not much sex and violence, though Darwin's marriage to his cousen is sure to be a topic most parents won't want to get their kids involved with. Recommended for ages 13 and up. |
I want to start this review by saying that I am going to try personally not to delve too much into Darwin’s theory for any reason other then to explain how this film portrays said theory and the arguments it may make. I’m not here to get into the whole God debate, I’m here to review a movie. “Creation” is a movie based on the writing of Charles Darwin’s controversial book “On The Origin of Species.” So controversial is the book that as little as five years ago the web site Human Events listed this as a runner up to the Top Ten Most Dangerous Books Ever Written (it missed the list though thanks to books from Karl Marx, Alfred Kinsey, and Adolf Hitler). The film tries to explain what Darwin went through to write the book that would change the world forever.
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At the beginning of the film we see Darwin (Paul Bettany) telling a story to his oldest daughter Anne. Five minutes later we find that Anne has died and Darwin - despite having four other kids and a wife - feels empty and can not love his family. At one point he even says that he can’t love anyone other then Anne. It’s those sort of words that make me sympathize with the family more then the protagonist. The movie argues that Darwin started looking for a search to the origin of life once God refused to save his daughters life. So this essentially boiled down to God didn’t give Darwin what he wanted so he became a stone cold atheist? Oh, wait, it’s more complicated then that. Darwin also couldn’t figure out why God would give the ability to the make lots of fish eggs if most of them get eaten.
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I’m not making this up. To all you supporters of Darwin please don’t take my snide comments as being disrespectful. I’m simply working with what the movie has given me. But just as Darwin’s book effectively (as one character puts it) “kills God,” this less then two hour film also makes a poor case for the theory itself. The poorest case it makes is the writing of the first half of the book. Darwin writes while he is stressed and depressed. He’s having delusions where he see’s and talks to his dead daughter. This is where the base of the theory is written? While Darwin is essentially a crazy man? And science has actually built upon the theory of a crazy man? Hey, don’t look at me; the movie says this not me.
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Tense moments come when Darwin is writing his book with a shaking hand, almost fearful of the very thing he writes. He knows what he writes will change the world, and for personal reasons that scares him. He also has deep conflicting now that his beliefs conflicts with the beliefs of his wife. My personal favorite scene is where he studies a chimp by the name of Jenny. Jenny expresses many human traits and desires, that it’s understandable that Darwin would suspect humans and apes were closely related. But these moments are rare, and the movie tries to tell three stories and fails at all of them. Why Darwin only seems to really care for his one daughter is never fully explained. Maybe because she talks more like an adult then that of a kid, but that’s no explanation.
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Darwin’s lack of faith comes off more childish then it does scientific. But probably the most offensive storyline is why Darwin wrote the book in the first place. Was it for personal reasons? Family issues? An impifany? No, he writes the book because a couple of politicians hate the idea of God and were willing to fund the first thing that would disprove the church. If this is truly the reason “The Origin of Species” was written then it is shallow, lifeless, and lacks any hope. Kind of like the real theory and the movie itself. Oh, I’m sorry, I promised I wouldn’t make this personal. Oh well, this movie cost me $12, so I decided somewhere in paragraph three to make it personal. Sorry, but this is how reviews evolve sometimes.
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