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Nicolas Cage is likely the perfect selection for a bold scary movie centered on Jesus Christ, though not for the reasons many fans might assume. In reality, the star does not actually play the central religious figure in The Carpenter’s Son: the part he plays is listed simply as The Carpenter. The actor is cast as a father figure of this tale, attempting to uphold his faith while his son (acted by the young actor), their now-teenage foster child, commences to show supernatural abilities. Why it's hard to picture any other major actor taking this character is that even as his character is stricken with multiple difficulties, Cage himself appears almost moving certain that this murky, somber little movie is a valuable project.

Cage's Recent Career Choices

Cage was spending those years more carefully lately. He continues to stars in additional projects than most average viewers may ever watch — for instance, did you know that the man has made three separate frontier films over the last few years? — but he also includes high-profile A24/Neon gigs such as one recent hit, Pig, and Longlegs. This new film sounds like in that category, in that it’s borderline horror, potentially provocative, and takes a over-the-top premise quite seriously.

The Film's Premise and Direction

Unfortunately, writer-director the director does not justify that serious attention. The Carpenter’s Son begins with a compellingly nomadic context, positioned as drawing from an obscure religious text concerning the youthful days of the messiah. Cage's character, The Mother, and their child move constantly, fearful of religious persecution or doubt regarding their son's strange powers. “Trouble pursues us,” The Carpenter mournfully notes. That continues when dark forces focus on them at their new home, initiating with that traditional religious challenge for the son.

At times, the film echoes an Exorcist-style horror film, except that not one of the central roles are explicitly taken over. On the contrary, they become progressively isolated from each other, when these powers affect a resident female (the actress, listed as “The Stranger”) who the son connects to, and presents all troubling visions of a grim future. The Carpenter especially fights with his place in this story, at times chastising his child who mystifies him.

Debate and Care

The content is prone to invite debate, and the director treats it with much delicacy — too much, perhaps. The idea of a adolescent facing his eventual sacrifice and tempted by unknown powers is truly terrifying, but the filmmaker might be cautious about looking exploitative and keen to indicate his goals, therefore he regularly falls back on gloomily threatening cinematography. Characters constantly ponder — FKA Twigs, who showed notable talent in another movie, surprisingly — cedes her performance to her Mother Mary cloak, sometimes broken up by several disturbing frightening scenes.

Cage's Acting and Movie's Flaws

Simultaneously, the actor toy with exactly the kind of overacting that his ironic fans might be looking for. An instance (shown) in the trailer where he erupts and yells “My belief is broken!” If that kind of theatrical release is a component of a biblical thriller, maybe a more boldly ridiculous style would be more effective of the actor's readiness to exaggerate as required. Instead, the film echoes the weaker low-budget movies he starred in over that period — apart from the B-movies so much as the serious stories and ghost stories that always sound promising, and frequently include several notable actor's highlights, but finally come across like, well, low-budget DTV material.

Honestly, several of these, while less ambitious, were easier to view overall. At this point I need to break my usual practice, not spiritual but professional: Long ago, a respected mentor urged me to banish adjectives like “monotonous” or “lifeless” from my analytical lexicon. Such terms express scant other than a subjective and vaguely expressed lack of patience, disengaging from the duty of vibrantly communicating the thoughtful and sensation of seeing a particular movie. It's hard to communicate tedium without appearing dull oneself. It's equally vague as terming a movie “interesting.” “Explain further,” in other words.

Yet, I acknowledge, I grew weary throughout The Carpenter’s Son. In its defense, it’s a churchy kind of stultification, not due to this movie is moralizing, but because it demands a sort of dutiful submission to sit through it. Eventually soon after starting, the movie settles into a monotonous pattern of simmering distress, and fails to