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The acclaimed actor could be the optimal choice for a bold scary movie about the biblical figure, however not for the reasons some fans could guess. Actually, Cage does not actually play Jesus in the new film: his role is listed only as The Carpenter. The actor is cast as the Joseph of this story, working to maintain his beliefs while the teenage character (played by Noah Jupe), their teenage foster child, commences to exhibit divine powers. The reason it's hard to imagine a different major actor playing this part is that while the role becomes burdened with multiple difficulties, Nicolas Cage looks nearly moving certain that the murky, grim feature is a valuable project.

Cage's Current Career Choices

Cage was spending those years more judiciously recently. He continues to stars in additional projects than most casual fans could possibly view — for instance, were you informed that the man has made several separate frontier films recently? — but he also includes high-profile independent films such as one recent hit, Pig, and a further title. This new film seems like one of those, because it’s borderline horror, potentially provocative, and handles a campy-sounding premise with gravity.

Movie's Premise and Execution

Unfortunately, writer-director the director fails to repay viewer engagement. The film begins with a interestingly wandering setting, marketed as drawing from an unknown scripture concerning the youthful days of the messiah. The Carpenter, the maternal figure, and their son travel from place to place, fearful of faith-based hostility or doubt regarding The Boy’s strange powers. “Disaster trails us,” Cage sadly observes. It goes on as evil influences target the family at their new home, beginning on that well-known scriptural test for the son.

At times, the movie echoes an Exorcist-style possession movie, but none of the lead characters are explicitly taken over. On the contrary, they become progressively isolated mutually, when these forces affect a local young woman (Isla Johnston, listed as “The Stranger”) who the son bonds with, and provides all unsettling premonitions of a grim future. The Carpenter especially grapples with his place in this story, occasionally chastising the son he doesn't completely grasp.

Debate and Sensitivity

The content is prone to invite debate, and the director handles it with plenty of care — too much, possibly. The idea of a adolescent facing his destined offering and lured by unknown powers is certainly frightening, but the filmmaker could be wary of looking exploitative and eager to indicate his goals, therefore he regularly withdraws to gloomily threatening filming. The roles continually reflect — the singer-actress, who displayed real promise in a recent film update, of all things — cedes her acting to her character's costume, sometimes broken up by a few gnarly horror imagery.

Cage's Acting and Movie's Flaws

Simultaneously, the actor flirts with precisely the type of overacting that his ironic fans may desire. There is a moment (featured) in previews in which Cage erupts and screams “My belief is broken!” If that kind of florid outburst is part of your Jesus-themed horror movie, perhaps a more openly absurd style would be more effective of Cage’s willingness to be extreme when necessary. Instead, the film more closely resembles the less successful low-budget movies he starred in over the 2010s — not the cheesy thrillers but rather the narrative films and paranormal movies that often seem intriguing, and often contain some select Cage moments, but in the end seem like, indeed, low-budget DTV material.

Truthfully, a number of those, though not as grand, were easier to view overall. Here is where I need to disregard my usual practice, not spiritual but work-oriented: Years back, a beloved editor urged me to eliminate descriptive terms like “tedious” or “uninteresting” from my film-criticism vocabulary. These phrases express scant other than a individual and broadly stated impatience, disengaging from the job of clearly expressing the thoughtful and feeling of watching a specific film. It's hard to express tedium without seeming uninteresting oneself. It's just as unclear as calling a movie “notable.” “Explain further,” in other words.

However, I admit, I felt uninterested during much of the film. On the positive side, it’s a churchy kind of dullness, not because The Carpenter’s Son is moralizing, but as it takes a kind of patient acceptance to view it. At some point early on, the film locks into a cyclic tempo of simmering anguish, and does not