Weathery

When in England, do as the English would do, even if that means going to the beach on a snowy bank holiday. This morning we had a great reflective Good Friday service and church, then this afternoon a group of us went up to Wells Next The Sea for fish and chips on the beach. When we got there the sun was shining, and it was almost pleasant. Then the clouds came across and as much as we tried, playing frisbee could not keep us warm for any longer. So we got hot chocolates and headed back to Norwich. It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon, thanks guys!

Afterwards we all went to someone's house to watch The Passion of the Christ. I'd avoided it until now, but it was inevitable. And I found it (sorry to everyone who finds it moving) very boring. My hesitation in seeing it has always been related to the motives behind making it - I struggle with people making big (money making) movies out of real events, and this one never felt like a genuine attempt to honour God. And my expectations were unfortunately fulfilled. I quickly found myself completely bored of the gratuitous violence, slow motion camera work and bizarre additions, and felt uncomfortable with the complete absence of any explanation about the significance of the events (or even the violence). There was no emphasis on Jesus' complete innocence, and there was a broadly anti-Semitic thing going on which always makes me shudder. The context was left unexplained, and it was never clear who many of the people actually were. There was far too much staring into the middle distance, and the music was distractingly manipulative.

This is a powerful story, and the ending is far more significant than the middle section. It doesn't need Wachaowski style slow mo violence or a swelling soundtrack. But it does need to be coherently told, it gets a little tricky and difficult to understand otherwise. As with most adaptions, I'd say the book is far better and you'll understand the story much more if you spend two hours reading that instead of watching this film. Just let your imagination see the events, and you won't need Mel Gibson to shove it in your face.

It has, however, been a great day with some lovely people, good food and interesting weather. Thanks everyone!

Also, I really need to clean my camera lens now it's been snowed on. Must remember. Must remember. Otherwise all my photos will have little spots like this one...