Netflix's 'Mary' Dramatizes Our Lady's Early Life

Premiering Dec. 6 on Netflix, Mary adds a new viewpoint to two millennia of artists' interpretations of the Mother of God.

Directed by Catholic D.J. Caruso (The Salton Sea, Taking Lives, Disturbia, Redeeming Love) and written by Timothy Michael Hayes, Mary casts Israeli actress Noa Cohen as the title character, a young Jewish woman faced with saying yes to a miraculous event that would not only change her life, but change the entire world.

Ido Tako co-stars as Joseph, and Anthony Hopkins plays King Herod.

What Contributed to the Story in Mary?

The film follows follows Mary from her Immaculate Conception through the Nativity to the Holy Family's flight into Egypt.

Shot in Morocco, Mary is a well-produced work of imagination. It's based in part on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels, but also on elements from the Protoevangelium of James, a non-canonical ancient book that purports to expand upon the early life of Mary and the birth of Christ.

There are also story points drawn from the personal revelations of Augustinian canoness Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), who claimed to have had mystical visions of the Christ's life, as revealed to her by His mother.

Catholic artists have been depicting Mary for centuries. She's had many faces, hair colors, and styles of clothing (usually accurate to the period of the painting, but not 1st Century Judea).

And, in most Bible-based film and TV productions -- the hit series The Chosen being an exception -- Mary is not even as much of a constant in Christ's life as she is in Scripture.

Mary doesn't posit itself as a definitive chronicle of Our Lady's life. Instead, it's a dramatized, stylized, action-packed tale of Mary's early life, drawn largely from non-Biblical sources (as Scripture is silent on Mary's life prior to the Annunciation).

As painters and sculptors have long done, there's also plenty of artistic license taken.

Is Mary Worth Seeing?

If you're looking for a pious, stately depiction of Mary, this isn't the film for you. But, taken on its own merits, it's entertaining and engaging, with great performances (especially Hopkins, who just chews up his very elaborate palace scenery).

Mary also stands in stark contrast to the yearly tsunami of sparkly Christmas-season movies that have nothing to do with the Nativity (like this one).

One thing Mary does do is put Our Lady front and center, emphasizing the very human drama of a young woman tapped by God for a key role in salvation history. That was one goal of Caruso, a faithful Catholic who names the slain Los Angeles Bishop David O'Connell as a mentor (the film is also dedicated to the bishop's memory).

Protestant pastor Joel Osteen is listed as an executive producer, but there's no indication that he played any creative role in the film.

PARENTS TAKE NOTE: Mary is rated TV-14, for intense action sequences, and an inference of the tragic consequences of Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents.

BTW, there is also some controversy over the casting of Cohen, an Israeli Jewish actress, to play Jewish woman Mary -- an actress whom Caruso says was born about an hour from Mary's home region. Don't want to give that much oxygen, but if you're curious, there's more about it here.

My whole video interview with Caruso is embedded below. Since I run through many of the questions and concerns I had after viewing the film, I recommend watching the movie first.

But here are some excerpts.

Talking to Catholic Director D.J. Caruso

On assembling the story elements (and giving Joseph some lines):

[We] put together the narrative in a way by combining ... what would tell the best story and still keep the framework of what we need, what everyone knows in the Gospel, and how do I respectfully fill in those voids that are missing in a cinematic way, that's also respectful and is exciting and is thrilling, and it moves your heart.

My good friend Bishop David O'Connell, one of the things he said to me was like ... please give Joseph a voice. He has no voice.

And he said what [Joseph] did was so sort of heroic. and to kind of go against the mob and to take this in and ... not really know what he was getting into. He would be a great sort of role model for these kids today to say, "Wow, OK, I need to stand up for what I know is right in my heart."

He was bold. ... So that was really inspirational in helping sort of give Joseph a voice. You have to give Joseph a voice. Anybody who's ever interpreted this Scripture or this story ... you're always interpreting what Joseph would be doing or what would be saying, because he's speechless in the Scriptures.

On Mary taking on the momentous choice of being mother to Christ:

That's really a message that should be out there today, because I think that's where we are in this world. It's like you have to say, it might not always be the easy route, but if you accept it and say, "Let it be me, or let it be done to me," you are taking Him in your heart, and you're going to follow the proper path.

It might not always be easy, but right now, I think we have all these options, and all these things that are circulating in the world, and we need to have an agency. We need, no, but it's all pretty clear. We just have to say, "All right, I'm in. I'm all in."

On the pope's reaction to seeing the Mary poster:

Someone was visiting with the pope, a priest in the Vatican, and he showed him ... a poster of Mary and the pope gasped. And so in two weeks, I've been asked to go to the Vatican. I think they want to see the movie. I was like, oh my goodness. ...

So it was so moving for me to hear that the pope had that response to seeing Noa, and it was like, oh my goodness. Now next thing you know, my wife and I are getting ready to go, and a couple weeks before the movie opens, I think, to the Vatican.

On giving style to a Bible story:

I just tried to push the visuals in a way that we're going to be super cinematic. And that's, to me, one of the most exciting things about the movement that's happening now in faith-based stories and faith-based movies, the cinematic elements are being elevated.

Addressing a potential controversy, in showing Mary having birth pains (it's widely believed that she didn't and some Church Fathers supported the idea, but it's not dogma):

I believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the Ever-Virgin. She is the Ever-Virgin. It's that simple. There's no interpretation. I don't care about science. I don't care what science tells me. I don't care what anything tells me. It means nothing to me.

But in humanizing her spirit, I chose to show the beauty and the transformative sort of event of His birth, because every mother who's ever given birth has experienced that, right? And that's the human element. ...

It was just important to me to show the human element, because I think that's such a beautiful, transformative event in everyone's life.

On what he hopes people take away from Mary:

I hope Mary is a topic of conversation and whatever beliefs you have, she was the most amazing, beautiful woman, and the light that she brought into the world, I mean, I don't think anybody can argue that.

But also, I want a young girl like my daughter, who's 17, who's seen the movie, to her, Mary is not only this iconic, beautiful woman. She's really cool. Now, "Mary's cool because she was like me, and she went through things, and she was young, and you never really got to see her."

We see these, whether it's the Passion, or your heart breaks when Christ is ... I mean, you can't even imagine what it would feel like. It's just unbelievable. So we know her that way, but how did she get there?

So I think I want her to be relatable now, even to a younger audience and just say, "Wow, I know her more now. She's my friend. Now. I can pray to her. Now I can reach out to her. She's there for me." What a great intercessor.

Adapted from Kate O'Hare's Pax Culturati blog at Patheos.com.

Kate O’Hare, a longtime entertainment journalist, is Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor at Family Theater Productions.