By Lindsey Schibelhut, Senior Reporter.
Coming out just in time for the Easter season is the film “Risen,” and while it may not be the greatest resurrection adaptation ever made, it gives a refreshing take on a well known biblical story.
“Risen” directed by Kevin Reynolds and written by Reynolds and Paul Aiello, tells the story of Roman officer, Clavius (Joseph Fiennes). Clavius is instructed by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) to locate the body of Yeshua, or Jesus of Nazareth (Cliff Curtis) which has gone missing from his place of entombment after his crucifixion. Pilate is hoping by doing this, it will extinguish an uprising in Jerusalem over the rumors of the messiah’s resurrection. Throughout Clavius’ investigation, not only is he challenged on everything he believes, but undergoes an unexpected spiritual awakening.
Throughout the film I felt like Fiennes gave a solid performance. We see Clavius go through a wide range of emotions, from being a hard-lined Roman soldier, to the more tender moments where he shows compassion, deals with his doubt about the resurrection rumors, while coming full circle with his new found faith.
Some of the other aspects of the film I enjoyed were the cinematography, musical score and storyline. Since I took a photography class, certain elements of the cinematography stood out to me. For example, a couple of scenes used the ‘depth of field’ technique. So, if you were to take a screen capture of the moments, they would have made for a beautiful photo – just noticing those subtleties made for a wonderful viewing experience. I also thought they did well with the musical score, because the more intense scenes had a great drive to them.
The storyline was intriguing to me as well. It was interesting to see the crucifixion story told through the eyes of a skeptic. By telling the story this way, it felt like the creators weren’t trying to preach to the choir, but were trying to reach a new audience. Also, unlike Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” the film does not go through the entire crucifixion. We see Jesus as he is already up on the cross and the aftermath that happens when the tomb is found to be empty.
Where I feel the movie failed to impress me, however, was with the casting of Cliff Curtis as Jesus. Not only did Jesus not have much on screen time, but Curtis didn’t do much with the character when he was given that time. Curtis didn’t have many lines, and there were many awkward eye stares. Jim Caviezel will forever be my favorite person to embody the role of Jesus, and Curtis, for me, fell flat.
My last complaint builds upon my last sentiment and, unfortunately, it happened at the end of the movie. What should have been a powerful, emotional moment, when Jesus finally ascends to heaven, gets ruined in part by the acting of Curtis and by bad CGI graphics.
Overall, I felt like this film was decent. Even though I do feel like more could have been done with the subject material than what actually was. There were some beautiful moments and heartfelt ones. If you’re looking for a family friendly film to go see this resurrection season, I’d still recommend it.
