Risen *** (2016, Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth, Cliff Curtis, María Botto, Stephen Hagan) – Movie Review

In an admirable, convincing star turn mixing easy, effortless athleticism with thoughtful intelligence, Joseph Fiennes is excellent as Clavius, a powerful Roman Military Tribune who witnesses the agonising crucifixion of the Christ, Yeshua (Cliff Curtis).

Clavius places the body in a cave tomb and seals the entrance with a huge stone that takes 10 men to move, and actual wax seals to secure it, but later it is found to be missing and Yeshua is rumoured by the Jews to have risen from the dead. Clavius’s task, with the help of his rather shifty-looking aide Lucius (Tom Felton), is given the task to find the missing body to disprove the rumours of a risen Messiah and thus prevent an uprising against Rome in Jerusalem.

In a sincere and rousing old-style Biblical epic, co-writer/director Kevin Reynolds confidently and sincerely tells the story of the Resurrection through the eyes of the non-believer Clavius. Based on a screen story by Paul Aiello (who co-writes the screenplay), it plays almost like a detective story, with Clavius and Lucius as the Holmes and Watson characters solving the mystery of what happened to Yeshua in a series of interrogations and confrontations.

This puts a satisfying, welcome new spin on the old, much retold Biblical story. The film is surprisingly impressive, both for its story-telling skills, its visual flair (under cinematographer Lorenzo Senatore), score by Roque Baños and Fiennes’s fine performance.

Curtis hits the right notes as Yeshua and María Botto plays Mary Magdalene sincerely. In a huge star support turn, Peter Firth gives a florid, old style turn as the blustery Pontius Pilate. Unwisely, Firth seems to be channelling Charles Laughton. It’s ripe and rough acting but not nearly as ripe and rough as Stephen Hagan’s deeply peculiar performance as Bartholomew. Otherwise this is a very good faith film, properly reverent and inspirational, with a joyful uplifting ending for the faithful believers in the audience.

Filming in Malta, the production gets a lot of great value from its relatively low cost of $20,000,000.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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