Modern faith-based filmmaking generally falls into two categories: dramatically inert contemporary parables and stubbornly reverential biblical adaptations. Sony-based imprint Affirm Films has especially focused on the former through emotionally turgid straw man affairs like Heaven is For Real and War Room, but Risen is the studio’s first dip into period piece territory, and it’s a satisfying success compared to their usual humorlessness and laughably serious moralizing.
Helmed by Kevin Reynolds, who is known primarily for historical popcorn action films like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Count of Monte Cristo, Risen delves into the cinematically dog-eared story of Christianity’s spiritual center piece: the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Cliff Curtis). The key difference is that Risen views the proceedings through the eyes of a heathen outsider – a military tribunal named Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) – framing the story as one half of a detective story and the second half as (a far less successful) chase/adventure story.
Risen’s beginning is deeply deceiving as it indulges in the film’s only real action scene, featuring Clavius leading a platoon of soldiers to fight a group of zealots, zealots who die with last words warning about a coming messiah. Swords plunge into bodies with quicksilver editing and the arterial sprinkle that comes with the PG-13 rating, and this is how we’re introduced to the character of Clavius – a lead character killing the believers of Christ as the right hand man for Pontius Pilate, one of the most infamous figures of the century.
He’s a military leader who’s risen in the ranks doing the dirty work for the bureaucrat Pilate but while violence is his norm, he dreams of a day without bloodshed. As a character, his motives are undeniably familiar, but the film feels particularly insightful in characterizing a person who crucifies Jesus as a relatable human being with tangible goals. He’s not merely a demonized obstacle who’s on his way to being converted.
Risen follows the events of the resurrection to the letter, but it’s revised from the perspective of Clavius. For instance, in the moment of Jesus’ death, he’s the one who gives the order to humanely kill Jesus with the spear to the side as opposed to the hammer to the feet. Similarly, he becomes the one entrusted with making sure Jesus’ entombing goes without a hitch for fear of angering Callaphus and the prefects, the ruling body of Judea. The unearthed tomb becomes the central axis for the story as Clavius investigates how a tremendous boulder could be moved with seemingly unnatural methods, and who or what stole Jesus’ body.
Joined by a simpering young buck named Lucius (Tom Felton), a sort of terrible, but dopily likable green soldier who earned his new post through daddy’s help, Clavius interrogates every known member of Jesus’ entourage and his two clueless and drunk charges who stood guard at the tomb. He holds the two hungover guards over the proverbial coals, who pull out what sounds like the latter-day equivalent of “my dog ate my homework” by saying that they were attacked by Jesus’ band of disciples. Soon, Clavius is dragging every collar into his interrogation room in hopes of finding Jesus’ army.
The detective framework is different enough, but Risen recognizes something fundamental about religion to the uninitiated: the believers all sound delusional. Bringing a dumbfounded levity to the whole proceeding, Fiennes deals with willing prisoners who can’t wait to tell Clavius about Jesus, and the film finds a manic joy and humor in the observations of the touched by the untouched. When Fiennes first hears a blind woman say that Jesus talked to her on the road, he can barely stop himself from rolling his eyes in abject frustration, while a peaceful run-in with the apostle Bartholomew (Stephen Hagan), plays like an sit-in with a proto-flower child – all good vibes and earnest absurdity.
Risen goes a long way as well in recognizing the realities of the time period through both big and little details. It’s not really necessary to understand why Jesus going missing would be such a problem, but the scribes clearly explain that there will be a religious uprising. And whether it’s Pilate’s casual anti-semitism when it comes to appeasing the scribes or Fiennes praying to his God about finding Jesus’ body, there’s an intelligence in the script about the smaller details of character and political context.
Inevitably, Risen can’t completely avoid the sacrosanct glow of biblical events or items. When Lucius picks up the shrouded veil in the tomb for instance, it’s treated with a ponderous reverence that feels uncharacteristically over the top. The second half similarly is loaded with these moments that pack on unneeded flashy reminders of profundity in favor of confidence in well-drawn characters.
As a director, Reynolds is fully aware of the expectations of the film and he expectedly zooms in when the conversation turns to Jesus or steadies the camera in solemn genuflection of the material. But he also brings a sense of scope to the craggy landscapes and immense canyons once the characters leave the Judea.
Clavius’ turning point comes with his witnessing of Jesus in the flesh, stigmata and all, as he sits with the twelve disciples. He’s so shaken in the moment that he devotes his life to finding out more about Jesus. Soon he’s following them with the same animalistic fervor of a dead-head following Jerry Garcia.
That in itself isn’t a narrative problem, though it substantially changes the tone, but it’s disappointing that this fleshed-out character is discarded to start making larger points about the merits of seeing miracles and moments to embolden his nascent faith. And while Reynolds’ formal skills remain on display, his ease with moving the narrative becomes far more strained.
Still, even at its most transparently manipulative, Risen doesn’t feel punishing. It’s universally good-natured without feeling too conniving. And even as the end verges on cutesy with the dispersing apostles literally announcing their next moves, it’s earned in an entirely unexpected fashion in showing the mundanity of being an apostle. At the end of the day, even these vaunted figures are just people. And that’s something to believe in.
Risen is now in wide release.