By Jonathan Romney
As prophesied by Hal Hartley, the Apocalypse will come when Jesus flies into JFK in search
of The Book holding the names of the redeemed. The book is an Apple Mac Powerbook, of course,
and it only takes a double-click to unfasten the seals that will summon plague, pestilence
and the rising of the dead souls. But first, the Messiah must engage in negotiations with
uptown lawyers, a breed especially beloved of the Almighty.
"The Book of Life," an hour-long vignette, is Hartley all over. Jesus is played by the
director's craggy-faced, impassive regular Martin Donovan as a charismatic, careworn
executive in a business suit. His brisk, glamorous personal assistant, Mary Magdalene, is
played to rather wooden effect by avant-rock queen PJ Harvey. Satan is in town too, a
shambling lounge-lizard. Played by Thomas Jay Ryan, with an appealingly shaggy Tom Waits
edge, it's Satan who provides the film's pithiest moments. But isn't that always the way?
"The Book of Life" is a new departure for Hartley only in terms of the visuals. Shot with
High-Definition TV equipment, the image constantly shakes, shivers and blurs. But the film
relies too heavily on this visual frenzy for its energy: it suffers from Hartley's usual
complaints, a stiltedness in the dialogue and acting, and a chronic fixation with surface
glamour.
The trouble is, there's nothing very new about the film's satirical passion play. Jesus and
Satan engage in philosophical disputations like a couple of boardroom litigants. They used to
work for the same boss, Jesus points out. "I quit," retorts Satan. "You were fired," Jesus
corrects him.
The metaphysical crux of the story revolves around the fate of the one Good Soul in New York,
a Japanese waitress (Miho Nikaido), who wins a million on the lottery and decides to spend it
all dispensing soup -- which makes for one of the film's better running gags. But the more
flip the film becomes, the more you feel that Hartley imagines it to be a terribly trenchant
jeu d'esprit rather than the souped-up sketch that it is.
The mix of dry theological dialogues and disjointed slapstick suggests warmed-over Dostoevsky
given a Godard polish. So this is how the world ends, neither with a bang nor a whimper but
an arched eyebrow.
The Scotsman, August 22, 1998
Jesus' Sidekick is P.J. Harvey. Satan is a New York Bum. The King James Version it
Ain't.
Rating: 4 stars (out of 4)
Millennium fever brings Jesus to JFK in a business suit.
This is the Second Coming, Hal Hartley style, the acclaimed indie director's playful and
highly inventive contribution to France's Collection 2000, television films about the end of
the millennium. Jesus, in Hartley's world, is accompanied by P J Harvey as Magdelena, all
plush lips atop a stick-thin body.
Satan, meanwhile, is propping up the New York bars, posing as a down and out, waiting for
Jesus for the apocalyptic showdown on 31 December, 1999. The Book of Life has been downloaded
on to a computer and an angry God wants his son to break the seven seals and end the world.
But Jesus, played by Hartley's veteran stalwart Martin Donovan, ain't so sure, and the Devil
-- Thomas Jay Ryan, excellent as the constantly irritated fallen angel -- just wants to get
the whole thing over with as he is bored with humanity.
It's a celestial High Noon in New York filmed in blurry digital video and the glaring colours
of a feverish world.
Irreverent but not mocking and occasionally inspired, Hartley's hour is a short delight.
The Times, August 25, 1998
A Bit of Grit for the Eye (excerpt)
By Geoff Brown
In "The Book of Life," another American attraction, most of the actors wear deadpan faces or
irritated scowls. There is a reason for this: the director is Hal Hartley, and he sculpts his
performances in his trademark way for this hour-long contribution to a French TV series
featuring the millennial musings of leading directors. But visually he has broken out with a
vengeance: shooting on video, he keeps blurring the images, creating a kind of kinetic
painting usually associated with the cult Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wei. Aspects of the
subject matter are also unusual: you don't expect Hartley to show Jesus Christ snaking through
Manhattan in a business suit on December 31, 1999, the fate of the world in his laptop computer.
Hartley regular Martin Donovan assumes that role; Satan, grousing in bars, is Thomas Jay Ryan.
The talk, at least, follows the usual pattern of philosophical jousting: good fun for Hartley
fans, slimmer pickings for anyone else.
Variety, June 15, 1998
The Book of Life
By Deborah Young
Hal Hartley is the only American director to contribute to France's Collection 2000 Seen By
series, a group of one-hour TV films about the end of the millennium. In "The Book of Life," he
gives a playful, irreverent and quite unorthodox account of the Second Coming of Jesus, who is
depicted as a young businessman returning to earth to kick off the Apocalypse. Though pic's cast
and buffoonery partially overlap Hartley's recent feature film "Henry Fool," this is a
distinctly different story. It is one of the hipper items in the Collection 2000 and should be
one of its most popular episodes with liberal-minded TV buyers.
A feeling of doom pervades the jaded population of New York as they get ready to turn the Big
Page on the calendar. In a hotel bar, a young gambler (Dave Simonds) and the waitress who
secretly loves him (Miho Nikaido) chat with a down-and-out (Thomas Jay Ryan), who is the devil
in disguise.
Meanwhile, Jesus (Martin Donovan) makes a smart re-entry at JFK airport with his sexy assistant
Magdalena (PJ Harvey). He has been sent by his wrathful Father to break the seven seals on the
Book of Life and bring about the end of the world. But he has second thoughts.
It's a fairly witty conceit, as Hartley sets up his premise and has Jesus pick up the fateful
Book --- now conveniently on computer disk --- in a bowling alley locker room. Donovan and
singer Harvey hit the right note of straight-faced, tongue-in-cheek farce. The parallel action
in the bar, with its pseudo-philosophizing and poor man's Faustian pact, is far less fascinating
than their mission, but in the end the two segments dovetail as all the characters come together
in a hotel room.
Lacking a neat conclusion to his story, Hartley finds himself with nowhere to take the strong
setup, and film wraps a bit lamely.
Many faces in the cast are familiar from Hartley's other films but are amusingly distinctive
here in their updated morality play roles. Lensed in digital video by cinematographer Jim
Denault and blown up to 35mm, pic has an eye-catching techno look that goes curiously well with
its omnipotent hero. Not only the music but abstract sounds are imaginatively used to give
events a familiar yet otherworldly feel.
First 4 reviews were taken from the
Hal Hartley site.
