What we're left with, sadly, is a frustrating quasi-biopic that never quite gets a grip on its subject matter.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 18, 2021

In the title role, Rooney Mara is subtle but conveys a great deal in her introspective approach and while the movie is overlong, it's well-worth seeing as the conviction of the actress and the cast make it worthwhile.

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Nov 20, 2020

If you're simply looking for a spiritual reminder this Easter weekend, the film offers the disciples' Last Supper refrain: "His steadfast love is eternal." As an objective film grade, it's a 2-star take on a 4-star miracle.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 24, 2020

Neither Rooney Mara (as Mary) nor Joaquin Phoenix (as Jesus) are especially compelling.

| Mar 25, 2020

It is so slow and so boring.

| Sep 27, 2019

The meta-narrative and the film's narrative never coalesce into anything insightful, for all of its good intentions.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 26, 2019

Neither its director knows how to take advantage of the approach, nor the lead actress manages to deliver the intensity that characterizes the film. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jul 25, 2019

Judea, AD 33, is a patriarchy chafing under Roman rule into which wilful Mary, not a prostitute as popularly supposed but a parental handful all the same, doesn't fit.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 7, 2019

This is a noble effort, but ultimately Mary Magdalene isn't much less of a mystery than she was at the start of the journey.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 3, 2019

Unfortunately, rather than explore what exactly it was that drove [Mary Magdalene] along, Garth Davis's film is more content to simply push her personal narrative to the side while going about the usual Bible-movie business.

| May 3, 2019

Mary Magdalene presents a feminist defense of Mary and more shading to Jesus's other apostles, but its particular method of world-building does little in terms of impact.

| May 1, 2019

The glacial pace and almost inert action makes it a challenge to get through at times.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 27, 2019

Mara as Mary conveyed stillness and a contemplative, firm spirit open to God's will and willing to follow Jesus where the apostles dared not go.

| Apr 26, 2019

The music score by the late Johann Johannsson has special music for each scene and that, in itself, becomes part of the cast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 22, 2019

One glance at Joaquin Phoenix being morose and anguished and weirdly sinister and the people of Judea would not have said, "Tell us more, teacher." They would have dialed IX-I-I.

| Apr 22, 2019

It's a well-meaning, good-looking effort - but those elements don't necessarily make for good watching. One needs to be in the mood for this sort of thing.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 19, 2019

A creative, relevant, and reverent film about Mary Magdalene, a deeply spiritual woman for all ages.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 19, 2019

Sleepwalks through the Stations of the Cross with an enervated, let's-get-this-over-with-already energy that reminded me of going to Mass on one of those hot, hungover Sunday mornings when not even the priest can feign interest in being there.

| Apr 19, 2019

There's exactly one image in the film that reflects a modicum of directorial imagination...

| Apr 18, 2019

This film honors the magnitude of its subject with virtue of its own.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 18, 2019