Unless you change utterly and become like little children, you will never even enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this little child, he will be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
In this quiet, warm-hearted and charming movie, the creators set out to tell the story of Jesus through the perspectives of those around Him, especially as He is seen through the eyes of the young Tamar, a girl that Jesus heals from a serious illness. And while this movie clocks in at a mere 88 minutes, it manages, through its humble stop-motion animation, to tell the story with more emotion, profundity and sincerity than many an epic film has managed. That makes the movie somehow spiritual in even a meta way; like Jesus Himself, this movie comes with humility and simplicity, not with pomp and circumstance, and, through that sincerity, it brings new life to its story. It’s probably my favorite movie about the life of Christ, in large part because it avoids so many of the pitfalls other religious movies fall into. It takes its story seriously, but it’s not ponderous and self-serious in the way many Biblical epics are. It takes itself lightly in many ways; I’ve never seen a cinematic depiction of Jesus that laughs and smiles as much as this one does. You see the ways in which many of his aphorisms and stories have wit and humor to them. Ralph Fiennes gives a wonderful vocal performance, charming, wise and down-to-earth. The rest of the cast is also excellent. William Hurt gives a heartfelt performance as Jairus, Miranda Richardson is fantastic as Mary Magdalene and Ian Holm is a great Pontius Pilate.
Even with its short run time, the movie manages to really look at many different perspectives on Jesus. There’s discussion of the differing perspectives of the different religious groups and the governmental groups. The Jewish Zealots have their own thoughts about Him; so does the Sanhedrin; so do the Romans. But all of these different factions have one thing in common; they view Him as much as a symbol as they do a man. It is only when people from those many different factions approach Jesus on the level of the personal that they truly know Him and are transformed by Him.
The movie utilizes both stop motion animation and traditional hand-drawn animation, each done by a separate studio, one British and one Russian. Both are executed extremely well, but it’s in the way the two styles interplay with one another that the film becomes more than the sum of its parts. We might be watching, for instance, a story of Jesus in the present day of His ministry and it’s in stop motion, but then we pause for a flashback to the Christmas story, the story of His birth, and that flashback is in hand-drawn animation. According to the filmmakers, they didn’t really have any particular plan for what material to put in what style; things just happened based on the workload and deadlines of the studios. But that keeps things from becoming predictable. It’s not as simple as the “real world” being stop motion and the parables being hand-drawn for instance. But it feels poetic somehow. Allowing the two styles to coexist side by side creates a greater artistic achievement than either of the mediums could have on their own.
Anyway, I find this to be a very underrated movie and it stands right up there with Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth miniseries as one of the very best depictions of the story of Jesus. It’s a visually striking, emotionally driven but also very smart adaptation of the story and I genuinely think it’s one of those rare Biblical films that will delight both believers and non-believers alike. In the current climate of “Christian cinema,” where “Christian” studios churn out mediocre movie after mediocre movie, all of them so preachy as to be cringeworthy, a movie like this feels like a breath of fresh air. I wish we’d get back to less strident, more artistic films like this, films that explore the stories and themes of the Bible with actual artistic intent and sincerity. As it is, we’ll appreciate the good religious movies we do have; The Miracle Maker is one of the best. 4 stars.
tl;dr – unfortunately overlooked animated film features great performances and great animation, all packed into less than 90 minutes; one of the best film versions of the life of Christ. 4 stars.