In one scene of Mitch Glazer’s “Passion Play,” there appears in the foreground a bottle of scotch whiskey sitting on a table. The label on the bottle says, “Gordon Shumway Scotch Whiskey.” You may remember that Gordon Shumway was Alf’s name on his home planet of Melmac. The appearance of that bottle is one reason why I somewhat enjoyed “Passion Play.”
The main reason I decided to watch this 2010 film was the cast. “Passion Play” features Bill Murray, Mickey Rourke, and Megan Fox. The plot is fairly simple, but if you let it, it may mystify you. I almost let it mystify me, but I did not try to take it so literally, although, it almost works as just a literal storyline. What does all that mean? The plot of “Passion Play” is as follows: Mickey Rourke plays a man named Nate who gets into trouble with some gangsters, mainly because he has sex with the wife of the mob boss, Happy Shannon, played by Bill Murray. At the beginning of the movie he is about to be shot by some of Happy’s goons, but is rescued by someone who shoots and kills the goons. Nate, tired and dazed, wanders into the countryside of what appears to be southern Arizona, perhaps near Mexico. He discovers a traveling carnival which features the typical movie carnival things—a bearded lady, a ferris wheel, and a woman with wings.
The woman with wings is played by Megan Fox. The winged woman is named Lily. She travels with the carnival as a woman who sits in a lighted, glass booth and displays her wings. That really is pretty much all she does in the carnival---but she has wings and can kind of fly. Not only is she super hot, but she has wings—that is a powerful combination. Anyway, Nate and Lily end up leaving the carnival and venturing out into a new life together. Nate falls in love with Lily. Happy Shannon wants to kill Nate for having sex with his wife. Happy also, after learning about the woman with wings, wants her as his own. What follows is interesting, but is not the wonderful cinematic experience it appears the filmmakers thought it might be. I enjoyed it and would watch it again, maybe in a few years. The performances of Bill Murray and Mickey Rourke are very good and make the film a bit more interesting than it might have been without them. Megan Fox’s performance is good as well. Her wings are a product of some below average visual effects, but she still sells them well. I believed that her back did hurt as a result of having wings to lug around.
“Passion Play” is one of those films that made me think, up until the final scene, "So, what does this all mean---Megan Fox has wings, Bill Murray is a gangster who hosts a fancy-looking event in which the winged woman is in a glass booth on a stage in an opera house, Mickey Rourke is down and out again, there’s Gordon Shumway scotch whiskey." If you watch the whole movie, I believe clarity will kick in at the end. I could be wrong and some may figure out what is going on ten minutes in, but sometimes I am not that quick. One thing that should be addressed is that a passion play is a dramatic representation of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As hard as I tried, I could not make any connection between what Nate was going through in the film and the life of Christ. I really did try, but I failed.
It is always agreeable to see Bill Murray in any film, I am still very happy for Mickey Rourke to be on the path to what hopefully is a Robert Downey Jr-like comeback, and, of course, Megan Fox is one of the sexiest women alive and (let me be unashamedly male here) hotter than heck! Even though the title of the film and the events in the film do not seem to match (you could make a tenuous case after the final scene for them matching), there is enough in the film that is of interest to make it worth 90 minutes of your time, especially if you are a Bill Murray or Mickey Rourke fan. It is neither fascinating nor profound, but it is interesting. If you have enough passion for either Murray or Rourke, give it a play.
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