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The Dispassion of the Christ

Writer-director Kevin Reynolds has placed himself in a tricky position with "Risen". He has made a film that tries to play to the religious sector of filmgoers, while entertaining a mainstream audience. The entire film lands with a thud.

"Risen" is not a film that will be played in a Sunday school classes anytime soon. Certain to ruffle the robes of the pious and enrage the dutiful church-going audience, "Risen" uses the resurrection of Jesus and builds a scavenger hunt of a film around it. I can't imagine this is going to go over well with most.

Joseph Fiennes - aloof and one-note - stars as Clavius, a tribune in the Roman Army, who has been put in charge by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) with guarding the tomb of Jesus after the crucifixion. Clavius is paired with Lucius (Tom Felton) in this task.

One morning, the boulder guarding the tomb is moved and there is nobody inside. Clavius, a non-believer, assumes that someone conspired to move the body. He begins searching all over Jerusalem to track down the body of Jesus, whose crucifixion he watched and knows he is not alive.

If for some reason you don't know how the story goes, I wouldn't dare spoil it. All I will say is that Clavius is in for a big surprise. "Risen" clocks-in under two hours but takes a long time to get to that surprise. We stomp the sand with Clavius as he berates and interrogates anyone he suspects of moving the body and it's rarely interesting.

"Risen" is not a movie to show your young kid to learn about Jesus and his resurrection. In fact, "Risen" is so far removed from religion the movie rarely - if ever - says the name Jesus. He is always referred to as "the Jew" or "the Nazarene". He is a nameless face in "Risen", which is why the film will like fail to appease the religious crowd.

Reynolds cares about making a sandal and swords epic but fails to ever make it compelling. Listening to Clavius grunt and yell at people for almost two hours is not entertaining because Clavius isn't interesting. He is meant to have an arc in the film and it is shoehorned in there but by then you'll be completely checked out.

"Risen" is not a movie to see at the theaters. It's cheaply produced and dingy looking. If you have any interest in watching it, maybe it will play on broadcast television - where it belongs.