Denzel REALLY Loves His Bible.

First, he'll quote you a verse. Then, he'll go all Slingblade on your ass.

The Book of Eli

starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals, Evan Jones, Michael Gambon, Tom Waits, Malcolm McDowell

directed by Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes

Seeing DenzelWashington in a preview for a post-apocalypse type film took me by total suprise. I guess I’ve just grown accustomed to his recent streak of crime dramas; The Taking of Pelham 123, American Gangster, Inside Man, Man on Fire, Out of Time, Training Day, The Bone Collector,…Just to name a few. Its unlike Denzel to take a part on a science fiction type film. I can only name two out of the actor’s forty-plus movie roles: Deja Vu and Fallen. And though the trailer makes this film look like a campy, unoriginal, black Mad Max on Cormac McCarthy’s Road post-2012, it still intrigued me if for nothing else than the fact Gary Oldman signed up for it. If Mr. Oldman is involved, the chances of the film being a good one are better than not.

Thirty winters ago, a hole was blown in the sky and the sun came crashing down and burnt the entire world. At least, that’s what the people of this future have been told that occuredthat devastated their world. A mysterious man known only as Eli (Washington) is traveling west, not knowing specifically where, to carry the book that holds the key to saving humankind to a safe haven. Eli is told by a voice from inside that he will be protected, and his feet guided, so that the precious book might be saved. There are others that know of the book and its power; a man named Carnegie (Oldman) has established a town under the iron fist of his rule. He seeks the book to use its powerful words to influence even more masses to set up a network of cities under his control. Once he finds out Eli carries the last remaining copy, Carnegie sets out to take it from him. Eli will not part from the book, except by prying it from his cold, dead, hands. With his new found friend Solara (Kunis) Eli races toward the west coast to save the book from the hands of evil men.

Denzel Washington plays a role that we’ve never seen him in before. For one, Eli is typically a man of few words, but definitely a man of action. Washington pulls off his own stunts and sword wielding quite well, and makes the performance of a devout man believable. Mila Kunis is quite forgettable, and Tom Waits role is small and unimportant to a point. However, the real gem is Gary Oldman; his portrayalof Carnegie is magnificent. He is cold, calculating, and deceitful; Oldman makes sure you are uncomfortable from the get go, and makes you hate him more and more as the story progresses.

Unfortunately, story is where the film falters. I will give it to the Hughes Brothers; the setting is fantastic. The landscape is utterly devastating and beautiful all at once, and the details of the towns and the people in them are skillfully laid out. The time spent with background and character development are not extensive but they are sufficient; the action sequences will get your adrenaline pumping; the ending is even one hell of a twist you won’t see coming. The problem lies in the climax, or the lack there of. The Hughes lead you to buy into their story and characters, and they get your blood pumping with the chase, and then just when you think things are about to explode…they don’t. It just falls flat. Originally I thought I was disappointed with the twist, but after some thought I decided it wasn’t that at all. In fact, the twist is very cool and unexpected. It never peaks, and it leaves you on the edge of the cliff with no satisfactory conclusion. Whether or not this was their intention, I have no idea. If it was, it didn’t work well. Instead of getting an epiphany, you get a let down.

What the film does achieve is a pointed message about faith and how it affects people. Its not giving anything away to tell you that Eli is carrying the final surviving copy of the King James Bible. Lore in the film holds that the book caused the great war. People like Carnegie want to use it for their own gain. People like Eli knows its message in their mind and soul and will carry it to the ends of the Earth. The irony is not lost on Eli, and certainly not on the viewers either. The genius of the film is not in the action, the imagination, or the failed plot; its in the questions it raises about The Book.

Its a good movie, people, but I have a hard time recommending it. Perhaps if you go in knowing that the climax will in fact be anti-climatic, you might enjoy it more than I did. There are a few minor plot holes that I would love to discuss with you all, but I’m not about giving away spoilers, and these minor plot holes are major spoilers. See the film for yourself, then look me up. We’ll talk. In short, Washington and Oldman didn’t let me down with The Book of Eli; its just that they came awfully close.