Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Lofty Nathan
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs, Isla Johnston
Having spent much of the 20th century taking every job that came along in order to clear his substantial debts, Nicolas Cage has since spent recent years opting for projects in which he's actually interested. This has resulted in offbeat gems like Mandy, Willy's Wonderland, Pig and Dream Scenario. It's difficult to imagine anyone but Cage playing the lead role in such movies, and his unique presence has also elevated lesser films like Butcher's Crossing, Sympathy for the Devil and The Surfer. But Cage's...well, Cage-ness has also brought down a few movies due to miscasting, none more so than Oz Perkins' Longlegs, a film whose sombre atmosphere was immediately deflated once Cage appeared on screen with his mugging antics.
Cage is horrifically miscast once again in writer/director Lofty Nathan's The Carpenter's Son. He's probably not the first actor you would consider to play Joseph (yep, yer man from the Bible), but Nathan has decided to plonk him into this ill-fitting role. As with Longlegs, this is another very serious horror movie that prompts ironic laughter whenever Cage pops up.
Nathan's film is based on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a gospel detailing Jesus's childhood which didn't make it to the final cut of the Good Book. Some Christians even consider it heretical as it portrays Jesus as experiencing doubts over his divinity. It certainly makes for an interesting movie premise. 15 years after the immaculate conception, Joseph and Mary (FKA Twigs) are still wary of their son Jesus (Noah Jupe) being discovered by the authorities, who have been hunting the child since his birth. The parents know their boy is special, but the devout Joseph harbours fears that his son may be a force for evil rather than good.
When the family moves to a small village, Jesus's powers are tested by the presence of Satan in the form of a teenage girl (Isla Johnston) who ropes the bored teen into playing games while attempting to seduce him. The village becomes plagued by strange occurrences and the villagers grow suspicious of Jesus.
Nathan presents all this in a rather flat, televisual manner. Shot in rural Greece, the film's backdrop certainly looks the part, but the filmmaking is far too bland for such a cosmic tale. This is a story that requires a transcendental approach, rather than that of a soap opera. The horror elements consist of a clichéd collection of jump scares, with weirdoes moving their limbs in the jerky-herky fashion of J-horror spirits and serpents emerging from the mouths of the possessed. It's never scary, but most damning of all is how it doesn't provoke much thought - neither the religious nor the secular viewer will find this compelling.
Though this chapter in the life of Jesus is rarely documented, we can't help but feel like we've seen this plotline several times before. This is essentially the origin story of every other superhero, when they're faced with the choice of whether to use their gifts for good or evil. A far better version of this movie is M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, which brilliantly reworked the idea of Satan drawing out Jesus's powers as a superhero origin story.
Jupe is effectively tortured as the young Jesus, and Johnston steals the show as the bratty teen Satan. I'm not sure why directors continue to cast Twigs, as she's the same wooden, albeit strikingly beautiful non-presence in every role. But the elephant in the temple is Cage, who plays Joseph's torment over his son's nature as though he were an aging Californian hippy worried his kid is about to become a Young Republican. Cage is admittedly amusing, his uniquely disruptive presence adding some mild relief to what is otherwise a biblical bore.
The Carpenter's Son is on UK/ROI VOD from December 22nd.
