book of eli

Gritty, grim 'Book of Eli' difficult to enjoy

In a not-too-distant future, a nuclear war has turned Earth into a seared wasteland, and one wandering survivor carries an important, one-of-a-kind artifact: A Bible.
Denzel Washington plays Eli, a man on a mission that even he doesn't fully understand. But it involves a westward trek across an endless stretch of lawless desolation that was once America and a series of encounters with various scoundrels, scavengers, cannibals and cutthroats.

We learn that most books and other objects of our contemporary culture were destroyed in the aftermath of the war, 30 years ago. But somehow, Eli got his hands on what may very well be the only Christian Bible that survived the holocaust - and the purge that followed.

We've seen drab, post-apocalyptic landscapes in movies before, but sibling directors Albert and Allen Hughes come up with a few twists on the familiar formula, like how things considered disposable in the pre-war world have now become commodities of great value. Eli barters for goods and services with little packages of pre-moistened KFC towelettes; an unopened plastic sample-size bottle of shampoo is a luxury few can afford. Fresh water is more coveted than gold.

"We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't," Eli explains to another character, a much younger woman (Mila Kunis) born after the great atomic reckoning that killed most humans and left many others blind. "We threw away things that people kill each other now for."

Eli has managed to survive with defensive skills that have been fine-tuned to a lethal edge. He's particularly effective with a big serrated blade and a bow and arrow, which he uses to dispatch all sorts of would-be way-layers who get in the way of his mission. When he tells you that the next time you lay a hand on him, you're going to lose it, you'd better believe him.

While most of the people Eli comes across are illiterate, having grown up in a world without books, one (Gary Oldman) is not -and he'll do anything to get his hands on Eli's Bible. Suffice it to say, those two characters want the sacred text for entirely different purposes.

It's hinted that Eli may be protected on his journey with some sort of "holy" power that lets him vanish and reappear, be peppered by bullets and not injured, tackle a gaggle of weapon-wielding goons and emerge without a scratch, or perhaps even rise from the dead. But the movie never brings any consistency to these attributes, and we never learn anything at all about who, or what, Eli was, or is. He may be a holy warrior, a wilderness prophet or an avenging angel...or just a guy in cool-looking sunglasses with a backpack and a big knife. We never find out, and such anything-goes, what-the-heck storytelling here just seems lazy and half-baked.

While "The Book of Eli" offers some interesting things to ponder, its excessive violence will turn off a lot of moviegoers who might otherwise be attracted to its "spiritual" message. Gritty, glum and grim, it's not a movie that's easy to enjoy. And it's one of the bleakest-looking screen-fillers to hit theaters in some time, almost completely devoid of color.

Some will applaud the crowd-pleasing conclusion, in which Eli provides a missing ingredient for humanity's resurrection. Others will nod along with the movie's message about the dismal state of any society built on a foundation that doesn't include the written word. And the audacious, "Gotcha!" ending will divide viewers into those who think it's wonderful because they never saw it coming, and those who roll their eyes because it stretches believability past the breaking point.

After two hours of hacking, stabbing, slicing, blasting and raping, all in the service of a story built around the Good Book, I felt like my library card had been pulverized into tiny little apocalyptic-dust pieces and I needed a good shower. Ugh.