Director Jon Amiel's latest film, Creation, is having a hard time finding a US distributor after the Toronto Film Festival. Most other countries have picked up on the movie, telling the story of Charles Darwin, his wife, their grief, and the origin of the species. Roger Ebert notes that during the scene where Darwin walks out of a church reading of Genesis, a member of the premiere press screening audience walked out too.
The film centres on Darwin and his wife Emma, played by real-life married couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. Ebert sez that the evolution theories play background to the core theme of how people deal with the random and brutal reality of the natural world. Some might turn to faith to explain away the reason, while others throw themselves into their work and uncover the amorality of cause and effect instead.
The director's previous work includes such wholesome splendours as The Singing Detective TV series, Jim Henson's The Storyteller and the remake of The Return of Martin Guerre, Sommersby. It's not as if the Yanks aren't afraid of a bit of period drama. Just no challenging ideas in their drama, period.
As the latest Yank craziness on the healthcare debate shows, winning a debate with calm rational analysis is not an option over there. Faith and spectacle trumps evidence and observation every time.
America is damned. Let them eat Michael Bay and starve. Natural selection will prevail.
