‘The Carpenter’s Son’ Trades Orthodoxy For Creative Freedom In Taking on Jesus
(REVIEW) It’s often been argued that the reason Christians can’t make — or appreciate — truly great religious art is ideological. That is, the faithful like faith to give easy answers.
But art asks provocative questions. Charles Bramesco wrote for “The Guardian” that Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” was great because it was “a film of questions and not of answers,” and Bramesco expressed contempt for the religious right “tongue cluckers” who rejected the film in favor of the “comforting clarity of organized religion.”
And yet, as I’ve written before, the creative class has its own challenges in creating compelling religious art. In film, the thoughtful creativity with which artists wrestle with religious faith is often made hollow by how frequently they misrepresent the faith they claim to be wrestling with. “The Last Temptation” portrays a Jesus who sins. “Noah” portrays a Noah speaking to a God who doesn’t speak clearly and cares more about animals than people. “Mary Magdalene” invented a conspiracy theory where the disciples stole the faith from Jesus’ true faithful follower (her).
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Christian filmmakers are getting better at making films and shows that wrestle with tough questions, such as Dallas Jenkins’ “The Chosen,” “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” and Angel Studios’ “The Last Rodeo.” Even so, these shows typically make sure they’re playing to the formula of the heartwarming Christian drama.
That’s why I found myself excited about “The Carpenter’s Son”: a horror-spun story following Joseph trying to raise Jesus while fearing for his future, starring Nicolas Cage — of all people — as Joseph himself. Not only could you say it’s different, but it had the potential to be good. People don’t focus much on Joseph. And there is so much untapped potential in exploring the horror elements of the Christian faith.
Unfortunately, while there’s brilliance here, “The Carpenter’s Son” falls into the same creative trap as films like “The Passion of the Christ.” It claims to ask hard questions about the biblical narrative. But because it gives itself so much creative freedom in how it represents that narrative, it ends up merely recapitulating simplistic modern narratives. A sprinkling more of Christian orthodoxy might have actually saved it.
Inspired by the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, “The Carpenter’s Son” tells the rarely explored story of Jesus’ early years. Hiding out in Roman Egypt, a family is torn apart when their son, known only as “the Boy”, begins to rebel against his guardian and uncover terrifying powers within himself. As natural and divine horrors begin to close in, the Boy’s mysterious destiny is revealed.
There’s plenty to like about the film. It’s aesthetically gorgeous—figures and mountains silhouetted in sharp blacks against both abrasive and gentle colors, and lights permeate the film. Grotesque images of demonic spirits hanging out with grimy ordinary people contrast with vast and breathtaking scenes in the desert.
You feel and experience a world where the veil between heaven, Earth and Hell is thin. Where someone you meet on the street might be a man or a spirit, all living in a world made by a majestic and all-powerful God.
Far too often, faith-based films have their Christian characters say that’s the world they believe in, but the filmmakers don’t have the artistic ability to convey that reality the way that Nathan and cinematographer Simon Beaufils do here.
The performances, likewise, are exceptional. Nicolas Cage is perfect casting for this interpretation of Joseph because he’s never completely unlikable, even when he is behaving unhinged. Tahliah Debrett Barnett (who goes by the stage name FKA Twigs) is gentle and pious as Mary, able to flip between tender and defiant believably. Isla Johnson is particularly multilayered as an impish tempter who’s ultimately angry at God and wants to bring Jesus and humanity down with him. Noah Jupe does better at the angry Jesus than the kind Jesus, but he is a strong anchor of the story’s events regardless.
The story introduces a lot of exciting ideas involving faith and humanity that you rarely see in film, faith-based or otherwise. The juxtaposition between Joseph’s no-nonsense behavior and his doubt-filled internal monologue is a smart device for portraying the isolation of spiritual struggle. The portrayal of Satan as a seemingly kind and sympathetic figure who slowly undermines our relationships is incredibly powerful.
Unfortunately, the film undermines these fascinating ideas by making Joseph far too abusive and Jesus far too rebellious. Because Joseph is constantly treating his son with such cruelty: Beating him, forcing him to sleep outside the house, giving him nothing but instructions and criticism with no tenderness, we can’t empathize with Joseph’s doubts and therefore don’t engage with our own.
As for Jesus, he’s far too easily rebellious toward his parents to resemble the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. Particularly after he crosses the line and blackmails Joseph into sinning, which means he sins — and therefore is not Jesus according to Christian theology.
A wrathful and sinful Jesus, of course, comes straight from the Infancy Gospels “The Carpenter’s Son” draws on. The Infancy Gospels (not to be confused with the Gnostic “Gospel of Thomas”) were a collection of legends about Jesus’ childhood that claimed to portray his life between his birth and his adventure at the temple. Many revolve around the child Jesus getting mad at people, killing them and bringing them back to life.
The church rejected these texts as heresy, and scholars have dated them to around the second or third century. But they continue to inspire people who like getting a peek, obviously fictional though they may be, at Jesus’ childhood. For example, Anne Rice’s “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” and its film adaptation, “The Young Messiah,” incorporate some of this material.
Director Lofty Nathan started writing his movie based on the Infancy narratives but “as the process went on, I started to just do my own thing and do what felt right.” (This makes sense, as the ending makes it clear the film takes place after Jesus’s temple story, even though the Infancy Gospels are supposed to take place before.) He enjoyed “the invention” and exploring the tough questions the story raised for him. “It’s a far leap away from the way I was raised with Christianity, which is not to ask those kinds of questions or not to try to answer them,” he explains. He argues that, in the long tradition of Christian art, there’s room for speculation and filling in the cracks.
And yet, within that tradition, there’s always material that’s accepted and rejected. There are reasons the Infancy Gospel was rejected by the church (besides how late it was written). A sinful Jesus isn’t just “filling in the cracks” of the biblical narrative — it’s breaking up the concrete.
Creatives often complain that Christian orthodoxy restricts how they wrestle with the Christian faith. But if you distort the faith too much, it’s not the Christian faith you’re actually wrestling with—it’s something you made up. Who does that serve? Christianity is worth wrestling with only if it is either (a) true or (b) faithful to what actual believers believe.
This film also exemplifies how, when people reject orthodoxy for the sake of creativity, what they end up with is… not very creative. The story the film tells —that harsh fathers (particularly those who impose oppressive religion) create resentful and toxic children — is one of the most repeated clichés in Hollywood this year alone.
This is despite the data that says most people are suffering from too little fatherhood and organized religion rather than too much.
I agree that Christians should be comfortable with doubts and asking hard questions. Data from Barna shows that most people who struggle with their faith come out stronger on the other side as long as they wrestle within a faithful community. So the most harmful thing we can do for religious doubters is make them think they can’t verbalize their questions in community.
But orthodoxy is clearly not the only thing that can encourage lazy thinking. Orthodoxy can do so by providing easy answers, but anti-orthodoxy can do so by providing no challenge at all to whatever answer we want to make up. Jonathan Haidt notes in “The Anxious Generation” that when people stop going to church together, they simply retreat into their own algorithmically curated echo chambers where their own ideas are constantly fed back to them.
That’s how “The Carpenter’s Son” feels: like someone creating a Jesus that can reflect too many of the filmmaker’s own ideas back at them. If the filmmakers had allowed a little more of the real carpenter’s son to wrestle back with them, the result could have been horrifically good.
“The Carpenter’s Son” is playing now in theaters.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.