Self-Conscious Absurdity Without A Point

Rating: 6/10 (12 May 2018)

God, a noted poet with writer's block, lives in a house with his "wife" Jennifer Lawrence (gorgeous as usual), who is renovating it from a previous fire which destroyed everything, including God's previous wife. OK, first off, it's difficult to keep straight if Jennifer is supposed to be The Holy Spirit or Mary, mother of Jesus. Second, it's a pretty abstract cinematic device, so let's leave this alone for now. Third, I suppose the message is, God has done this before, which is not really Biblical and also quite disheartening.
God invites a stranger (Ed Harris, let's call him Adam) to stay the night in the house (let's call it Eden). During the night, Adam loses a rib while in a vomiting fit. The next morning, the stranger's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer, let's call her Eve) shows up and begins vamping it up. Eventually, the two sons (let's call them Cain and Abel) arrive, and Cain slays Abel, receiving a mark on the head from God. OK, so we are now clear that God resides in Eden, and has begun the process of creating mankind. If you want a film to have a moral, there must be rules which are to be obeyed and consequences for not. In THIS film, God never establishes any rules but just lets everyone run amok. While you might be able to make an argument that's what happens in the Bible, there is still the little detail called "don't eat from the tree."
After this, the movie picks up a little steam. God invites everyone into His house and they begin to destroy it, and each other, and to use God's name in vain for their own purposes (don't worry, radicalism was not omitted from the list of sins). I must say, these scene were quite Dante-esque, with a little Peckinpah for good measure.
Jennifer tries to save the house, and her baby, but fails in both. First, the film again and again fails to recognize that God makes specific commandments for men to follow and they don't. Instead, God is depicted as extremely permissive, which is false. So the film blames God for not giving us instructions, which is as obnoxious as it is not true.
Second, let's just say the cannibal scene is an interesting slap in the face to Christianity, specifically about "eat my flesh and drink my blood" which is obviously not supposed to be taken literally, or else this film shows what! The film also puts the cart before the horse, claiming that God wants to forgive men for murder because, well, "we have to." The truth is, men were told not to murder, but they do anyway. Most reasonable people should think the film is subversive here, slapping both God and man, as if the writer is smarter than all. No, I don't take the film to be a representation of the Bible, but a knowing leer. If it's not, the filmmakers are quite ignorant of what the Bible says.
FInally, after two hours of browbeating, the film mercifully ends by lending Jennifer the mise-en-scene as Christ off the cross, being carried. Confusingly, God takes her heart (her "love") and begins the process all over again, making us feel small and unimportant. After all that God did and hoped for in the film, He basically wipes the slate clean, like an Etch-a-Sketch. There is no hope, no love, no process. It's all despair, despite the sunny bedroom ending.
This is only "art" in that the filmmakers obfuscated their ignorance and biases by exaggerating the action and characters to absurdity. It's really more of an avant-garde cartoon, only without any humor. In fact, the intensity of every moment is so self-conscious as to feel like the joke itself, mocking any piety.
As I said, Jennifer Lawrence looks amazing here, and I will superficially give this a 6 rather than the 3 it deserves.