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The acclaimed actor could be the perfect choice for a daring horror film about Jesus Christ, though not for the reasons certain viewers could guess. In reality, Cage does not actually act as the central religious figure in the new film: the part he plays is referred to only as a craftsman. The actor is cast as the Joseph of this narrative, striving to keep his religious convictions while his son (portrayed by the young actor), his teenage foster child, starts to show miraculous gifts. The explanation it's challenging to imagine any other leading star taking this character is that even as his character is burdened with numerous challenges, Nicolas Cage appears practically emotionally certain that this dark, somber small film is worth his time.

Cage's Recent Career Choices

Cage has spending that time more carefully recently. He continues to makes more movies than the majority of average viewers may ever watch — as an illustration, are you aware that the actor has filmed several distinct frontier films recently? — however he also includes prestige independent films like one recent hit, Pig, and a further title. The Carpenter’s Son sounds like in that category, in that it’s genre-adjacent, likely to stir debate, and approaches a exaggerated description quite seriously.

The Film's Plot and Execution

Regrettably, filmmaker Lotfy Nathan does not reward viewer engagement. The Carpenter’s Son begins with a interestingly wandering place, positioned as based on an obscure religious text about the early years of Jesus. Cage's character, The Mother, and the boy travel constantly, anxious of faith-based hostility or doubt regarding their son's strange powers. “Calamity follows us,” Cage sadly observes. This persists when dark forces target the family where they currently live, initiating with that familiar Biblical temptation for the son.

Sometimes, this production mirrors an demonic possession-type horror film, except that no one of the lead characters are directly possessed. On the contrary, they become more and more distant from one another, while these entities influence a nearby girl (Isla Johnston, credited as an outsider) that the son connects to, and provides each character troubling visions of a grim future. Cage's role in particular struggles with his role in the narrative, occasionally scolding his child who mystifies him.

Debate and Caution

This material is prone to court controversy, and Nathan treats it with a lot of sensitivity — excessive, maybe. The concept of a adolescent facing his future martyrdom and lured by unknown powers is indeed terrifying, but Nathan could be cautious about appearing sensational and anxious to signal his goals, thus he frequently withdraws to dimly foreboding cinematography. The figures brood incessantly — FKA Twigs, who demonstrated real promise in another movie, interestingly — surrenders her performance to her Mother Mary cloak, at times punctuated by some gruesome scary visuals.

Cage's Portrayal and Film's Shortcomings

At the same time, Cage toy with exactly the kind of melodramatic acting that his more snickering appreciators might be looking for. An instance (also included) in the trailer in which he loses control and shouts “My belief is broken!” When this sort of theatrical release is part of a Jesus-themed horror movie, maybe a more brazenly silly method would take better advantage of his eagerness to be extreme when necessary. Instead, the film echoes the less successful straight-to-DVD movies Cage made over the last decade — not the cheesy thrillers but rather the narrative films and ghost stories that typically appear interesting, and frequently include a few choice actor's highlights, but in the end seem like, frankly, low-budget DTV material.

Honestly, a number of those, while less ambitious, were easier to view as a whole. Here is where I have to break my usual practice, not faith-based but career-related: Previously, an admired senior persuaded me to eliminate words like “monotonous” or “lifeless” from my film-criticism vocabulary. These phrases convey little other than a individual and broadly stated lack of patience, disengaging from the duty of vibrantly communicating the mental and emotional experience of watching a specific film. It's challenging to express tedium without seeming uninteresting personally. It's equally vague as calling a movie “engaging.” “Elaborate,” that is.

However, I admit, I felt uninterested during much of the film. To the movie’s non-exploitative credit, it’s a churchy kind of stultification, not because The Carpenter’s Son is lecturing, but as it requires a sort of obedient endurance to watch it. At some point soon after starting, the film locks into a cyclic tempo of simmering distress, and fails to