To say that she is a complicated figure is an understatement, and Garth Davis cuts a completely new path in his depiction of her with his latest film. She shows sexual attraction to Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, and according to Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code”, the Catholic church is hiding documents that prove Jesus and Mary were in fact married and bore children. In more recent times, she has been seen as a temptation in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ where Jesus must wrestle with leaving the cross to instead marry Mary Magdalene and have a family. Prior to the reformation, she and Mary of Bethany, along with the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet prior to his death, were merged into the being the same woman, despite the Scriptures keeping them quite separate. It is here that a storyline emerged of her having tension with the 12 disciples of Jesus, especially Peter. These writings were dated long after Mary’s death, and are not seen as historically reliable. While she is mentioned 12 times in the Gospels, much of the myth that has developed over time comes from the Gnostic writings in the apocrypha. She was seen in the gospel accounts of Jesus to have been a disciple of Jesus, even helping to provide for Jesus’ ministry out of her resources, indicating that she had some wealth. She was also reported to have had 7 demons leave her (Luke 8:1-3). The popular story that people think they know about Mary Magdalene is that she was a prostitute from the Galilean fishing town of Magdala. Rooney Mara ( Lion, A Ghost Story, Carol) stars as the titled character. As a result, Davis fails to generate any forward momentum or interest, despite strong performances and captivating cinematography, as he considers the figure of Christ through the eyes of one of his most unlikely followers in the first century culture of Judea: a woman. Unlike Lion, Mary Magdalene’s pace is much to slow. Like Lion, Davis allows the story to move forward at its own natural pace. Garth Davis follows his excellent feature length directorial debut, Lion, with a Biblical tale whose title evokes one of the most controversial, and misunderstood figures in the New Testament: Mary Magdalene.