The Passion

To be perfectly - or imperfectly - blunt about it, the only reason anyone is talking about seeing Mel Gibson's "The Passion" is because Mel and his dad have done everything in their power to whip up a controversy where one may never have existed.

One or both of them have threatened, whined, proselytized, conspiracy theoried, acted crazy and made even crazier and more inflammatory comments through almost a year of hype about a film that I suspect won't turn out to be very good.

Sadly, nothing about this film particularly interests me. Mel Gibson said he made this movie because he was intensely suicidal and this was his therapy. A few times since this whole nonsense began, I've wondered if Mel made the right choice (ahem).

This is Mel's "Waterworld", the collossal flop from Kevin Costner. He's done everything within his power to cook up controversy, from primarily only inviting fundamentalists or right wing Catholics to viewings while excluding most of those from a Jewish and/or liberal background - to threatening Frank Rich (and Mr. Rich's non-existent dog) - to going on TV to say it's a shame that his wife who's a very nice person will not go to Heaven while he will because he's one of the chosen - to acting like the whole world is against him.

Mel's always been interesting on screen, but never more than that. I don't think he's one of the great minds of our century and I don't particularly trust a film about Jesus that has to be hyped in the way he's hyped it to get it attention.

The overall image he projects these days is a man who's lost touch with reality while trying to leave the impression he's actually better tuned into the divine word than anyone else. Whether he's fallen victim to the same apparent brand of mental illness that some hint his father suffers from or not, I don't know. But I don't much like seeing someone decompensate in front of my eyes, especially while the lunatic explains he's more special than the rest of us.

Yet - largely because of his hype - many of you will go to the theaters and act to validate Mel's divine madness. It's understandable. People crane their necks around to look at an accident as they drive slowly past. But this is one ride I'm not going along on.