A Tepid Review of Creation

Betsy Sharkey of the LA Times has a somewhat lukewarm review of Creation, the new film with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. She writes:

The precocious and much-loved Annie Darwin (a very promising young Martha West) died at 10 after going through treatment for a fever that frankly seems reminiscent of water-boarding, but then it was the 1800s. Charles, who already had bouts of an undiagnosed illness that looks a lot like depression, was sent into a very deep tailspin by Annie's death.

Before long, Charles and an afterlife Annie are having lots of philosophical conversations as he worries that his thesis will kill the notion of God and other thorny issues, particularly since wife Emma is especially devout.

Soon you realize that Annie's death has sent the director into a tailspin of his own. With his allegiance divided between father and daughter, it becomes increasingly difficult to know whom the film really belongs to.

Ms. Sharkey suggests that this angst becomes an overbearing presence in the film and that the science gets left on the cutting room floor. Creation ended up at 59% on the Tomatometer. I still have not had a chance to see it.

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