| Duration | 1h 34m |
| Ratings | UK: 15, USA: R, Germany: 16 |
| Source of story | It is suggested that the film takes its narrative from ‘The Infancy Gospel of Thomas’. |
| Director | Lotfy Nathan |
| Writers/Script | Lotfy Nathan |
| Starring | Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe, FKA twigs, Isla Johnston, |
| Ratings | IMDb: 4.6/10 by 7.6k people. Rotten Tomatoes: 4.8/10 by 64 reviewers. Review2view: 3/10. |
Plot of The Carpenter’s Son: The carpenter, his wife and their infant son travel across the desert to a new village in which they hope to make a home, passing on the way people treating babies very badly. One is thrown into a fire. In the village they live in a primitive hut and the carpenter makes stuff out of wood, including fashioning an image of some sort of character. The son grows up to become a teenager and exhibits signs of supernatural power, killing and bringing a grasshopper back to life. He shows an interest in a young woman, particularly when she is showering naked. But the young woman and her mother are mad and are strung up in chains which seems to be the fate of many people from the village who do not conform to the norms of life. The carpenter’s son makes friends with an androgenous young person who seems to be leading him into some sort of evil, and tricks him into curing a leper. Jesus, for it is he, removes the demon from the young woman by pulling a snake out of her mouth. There is more, but it is very tiresome.
Content: No sex and just a bit of nudity as the young woman showers. Mostly people wander about wearing old fashioned costumes in a dusty environment. Quite a lot of villagers strung up in chains for reasons which are not explained in the film. The pulling of the snakes out of people’s mouths is quite unpleasant. The young person who is supposed to be Satan seems to be scarred with what are the results of self-inflicted cuts. Every now and again the carpenter has a melt-down in a sort of Nic Cage manner. Mary mostly looks on silently to what is going on.
A View: As a result of watching this film I have been thinking of having a briefer less wordy critique. Maybe DON’T WATCH in capital letters. If people insist on making films with very limited budgets, they should not expect people to watch them. Wanting to make a film with religious relevance is no excuse. The inhabitants of Egypt and the Phillipines have been spared from it because it has been banned in these countries. This is a distressingly awful outing so give it a miss – really.
Fun Fact: Writing this short review has brought back to mind a film which I would rather have forgotten.
Discussion
No comments yet.