The Christopher Nolan that made Following and Memento is not really the same Christopher Nolan that made the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception. He's got more money, more trust, more opportunities. Yet, there's a clear connection running through his body of work, the identifiable Nolan-ism that makes us realise that Following and The Dark Knight Rises are made by the same person, instead of feeling like a rote blockbuster made by the same guy that's made 20 blockbusters before that.
And this is the case with Darren Aronofsky and his biblical epic/passion project, Noah. I must admit, had this been made by another person, I wouldn't have been at all interested in it. But because this is a film made by the guy who has given us films like Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler, I was excited to see how he'd fare when he was given a few more dollars in his back pocket and the opportunity to tell a tale that would get the tongues wagging - perhaps more so than ever before.
Noah is indelibly a Darren Aronofsky film. It doesn't feel like it's cut from the same cloth as Aronofsky's other films, but it makes a nice addition to a nice enough patchwork quilt. Aronofsky is the kind of director that we could trust with anything - even The Wolverine, had he chosen to make this film - but Noah seems like the biggest thing we've trusted him with yet. Or is it the biggest film that we've trusted anyone with yet?
Hmmm, one has to ponder.
