Friday

I had been wanting to watch Kevin Smith's Dogma for a long time. Perhaps I built my hopes up too high, or perhaps I wasn't fully concentrating when I watched it, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I knew virtually nothing about it (until the announcer told me the plot), except that friends had said it was good. Thus, I was thrilled when Jay and Silent Bob appeared. The problem with the film, I thought, as indeed is the problem with Christianity, is that it works perfectly until you get to the end. The resolution of the movie, as with Christian life, is deeply unsatisfying. You're brought brilliantly into the world of the movie, engaging with the characters and their interaction, building suspense for a big showdown at the end, only for it to fall flat, as it always will, with God. Things end too predictably for a film that has been built on unpredictability. Plus, whilst they have interesting characters, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play them quite badly, although you do sense the good chemistry between them. I think I wanted more, and felt unsatisfied by the end. It is a good and amusing movie, but not a great film.