This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Bewildered
Plot Overview
Rumor has it that a domestic in the
Caribbean brought witchcraft to the Salem colony whence
it spread despite burnings. Also the Spanish flu being aggravated
by the close quarters of Bostonian soldiers during the Great War
gave rise to various speculations such as this fictional one from
author Thomas Mullen:
“I heard someone say it came in a black cloud over the Atlantic,” Laura said—“A black cloud?”
“Like a mustard gas cloud, only dark. Something the Germans released from a battleship, and the wind brought it to Boston. That's why it started there.”
“Do you really think the Germans made it?”
“Maybe. I don't know. Why not?”
“Then wouldn't they all be sick, too?”
Laura shrugged. “Maybe they don't get the flu.”
“Then I guess Elsie's family has nothing to worry about.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“I just mean they're German.”
“But they're American now, Philip.” (74)
We might be wise to take flu fantasies
& magical mischief with a grain of salt at the theater.
In PM2 a Salem progeny, witch matriarch having seen an
omen for her demise in the coming year gathers family together for
a queenly sendoff. Her niece Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) has
forsworn magic on account of a family curse on the men they love
but is waiting for the right time to tell her two daughters of
their heritage.
During
pillow talk between Sally's daughter Kylie (Joey King) & her
boyfriend Chad they proclaim undying love for each other. This
activates the curse sending Chad into a deep coma after a freak
accident.
In her attempt to break the spell,
Kylie consults a grimoire purloined from a great-aunt's library.
The pertinent pages are sealed so she travels to England, meeting
more distant family, to get them to open up.
Ideology
A resultant marriage well illustrates Puritan beliefs who settled in Massachusetts. According to cultural historian David Hackett Fischer, the Puritans had “a cultural idea of marriage that was unique to the Puritan colonies. … The Puritans of New England rejected all the Anglican ideas. They believed that marriage was not a religious but a civil contract” (77). For a proper definition of marriage, I'll quote Dr. Ide: “The Contemporary Christian standard was defined not by the bible but generated by Roman law as defined by the jurist Modestinus who argued that marriage was ‘consortium omnis vitae, divini et humani iuris communicatio: a life-long partnership, and a sharing of civil and religious rights’” (83–5). The religious rights occur in the context of what we'll call a domestic church, the civil rights the province of a domestic partnership or civil union.
In this movie's
cinematography the steeple of the church was truncated at
the top but we got to see all the attenders of the wedding in
front. That's okay because a church is the people, not the
building. Ken Johnson, Th.D. quotes Mathetes—a.d. 130—who
studied under the apostle Paul: “Christians follow the
customs of their native lands in regard to marriage, food,
clothing, and conduct. They marry and have children, but they never
have abortions. They obey all the laws of their country”
(86.) At least two witnesses are required for a marriage, and they
had lots of them here. Furthermore, America's first amendment
forbids the state to establish a (domestic) church, so they cannot
be officers of the court; when a couple gets married by a Justice
of the Peace, they have to bring their own witnesses.
State control of marriage is not a universal arrangement. In many European and North American jurisdictions, religious authorities wielded final control over the institution until well into the eighteenth and even nineteenth centuries. … Among people who live in traditional societies at the fringes of the modern nation-state, marital status and practices proceed apace without the involvement of the state. (5)This wedding was officiated by a large woman in a muumuu. She will do.
The saying of vows was edited out, but we'd already heard the couple in their pillow talk express their desire for a lifelong exclusive commitment, so we assume that part was taken care of.
The wedding song is where it gets interesting. We hear the repeated refrain, “Put the lime in the coconut.” This is a folk remedy—approved by a doctor—for Montezuma's Revenge. The lime kills the bacteria and the coconut adds electrolytes to make up for those lost. A double shot of lime wouldn't do it, and two coconuts is nuts. (Matt. 19:4-5) “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them ♂ male and ♀ female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” It was not just love between two random entities but a curse-conquering love of a hetero couple.
Near the end of the movie illegitimate warlock Tom Lockland (Solly McLeod) tries to purloin the magic aura from his legitimate siblings' descendants, and one tells him, “It always bites you in the ass when you try to steal from a witch.” Perhaps a similar curse applies to those who want to impart a sacred magic to a marriage in name only for whatever reason.
Production Values
“” (2026) was directed by Suzanne Bier. It was written by Alice Hoffman, Akiva Goldsman and Georgia Pritchett. It stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Joey King, Maisie Williams, Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing. The cast brings its heart. Bullock's Character (Sally) was very good, and she and Nicole Kidman's character (Gillian) had good chemistry between them. This is a chick flick par excellence. The multigenerational women—including stars—spend the first half of the movie gushing over each other; the men in it are but placeholders.
MPA rated it PG–13 for some violent content, suggestive material and brief strong language. The camera work was sweeping to evoke nostalgic references. The magic was movie fare. Runtime is 2 hours 10 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The magic is more silly than seducing, but it showed good special effects at times. As a TV movie it would provoke a fight between the boys & the girls over the remote. I barely suffered it.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups of Women. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Print. Software.
Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Web.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Lehmann-Haupt, Rachel. “Need a Minister? How about Your Brother?” New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003, late edition, sec. 9, 1+. As quoted in Tamara Metz.
Mathetes, Epistle to Diognetus 5. Quoted in Ken Johnson, Ancient Church Fathers. Copyright 2010 by Ken Johnson. San Bernadino, CA, 07 April 2018. Download print.
Metz, Tamara. Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State, and the Case for Their Divorce. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2010. Print.
Mullen, Thomas. The Last Town On Earth. Copyright © 2006 by Thomas Mullen. New York: Random House, first edition, 2006. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org