The reviews are in, and critics are saying Nicolas Cage has another stinker on his hands with his latest film, The Carpenter’s Son.
The bizarre biblical horror film — which had already courted controversy — finds the 61-year-old Oscar winner playing Joseph, the father of Jesus, who tries to protect his teenage son as he’s tempted by a mysterious stranger, who turns out to be Satan.
The film, which hits theaters on Friday, November 14, is written and directed by Lofty Nathan and inspired by the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which retroactively tried to fill in the early lives of Jesus, when his divine powers were becoming evident.
Early reviews for the film have cast it as ‘dreary’ and ‘misguided,’ while others have criticized it for lacking suspense due to its well-known biblically inspired story.
Cage’s performance was more polarizing for critics, with some praising the star’s work in an otherwise weak film, while others said he’s usual over-the-top persona hamper’s The Carpenter’s Son.
According to The Wrap‘s William Bibbiani, the greatest weakness of The Carpenter’s Son is that viewers won’t be left guessing as to whether Satan will be able to successfully bring Jesus into sin.
Critics were largely negative on The Carpenter’s Son, a biblical horror film starring Nicolas Cage as Joseph, the father of Jesus; pictured in The Carpenter’s Son
Several reviewers wrote that Cage was miscast, both because of his overly dramatic performance and because of the associations he brings due to his earlier unhinged roles; pictured in May in Osaka, Japan
‘Let’s just say there’s no way the ending could possibly be a spoiler,’ Bibbiani writes. ‘There’s no suspense because there’s zero chance Jesus is going to join Mephistopheles’ Brotherhood of Evil Messiahs. It just doesn’t work.’Â
Bibbiani also takes issue with the film simply referring to Joseph, Mary (FKA Twigs) and Jesus (Noah Jupe) as The Carpenter, The Mother and The Boy, respectively, because the lack of proper names doesn’t make it any less obvious that viewers are seeing a story inspired by apocryphal texts that were excluded from the official biblical text.
Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck opines that The Carpenter’s Son ‘strains mightily for a seriousness that it never deserves.’
He cites Cage and FKA Twigs’ casting as Joseph and Mary as examples that the film is ‘throwing in the towel’ from the start.Â
Cage ‘sends out campy vibes’ from the start of the film, which are echoes of his earlier unhinged performances.Â
The actor’s demeanor also clashes with the overly ‘solemn’ tone of the film, and Scheck says the movie will fail to please both those looking for an inspiring faith film and a solid horror flick.Â
In Collider, Aiden Kelley agrees that Cage was ‘miscast,’ though he specifies that his intense performance wasn’t objectively bad, but didn’t fit with the other toned down performances.
He writes that The Carpenter’s Son suffered from a ‘meandering’ pace, before speeding up for a ‘rushed ending’ that ends the film on a sour note.Â
FKA Twigs portrays Mary, while Noah Jupe stars as JesusÂ
According to The Wrap’s William Bibbiani, the greatest weakness of The Carpenter’s Son is that viewers won’t be left guessing as to whether Satan will be able to successfully bring Jesus into sin due to its widely known source material
Some reviewers blasted the overly somber tone of the film, which clashed with Cage’s ‘campy’ lead performance
In a C- review, the AV Club ‘s Jacob Oller calls The Carpenter’s Son a ‘shockingly boring genre film’ that constantly retreats from Satan’s temptations to boring domestic drama with Joseph and Mary
But even negative reviews tended to praise the performance of Isla Johnston (pictured) as The Stranger, who is later revealed to be Satan
In a C- review, the AV Club‘s Jacob Oller calls The Carpenter’s Son a ‘shockingly boring genre film.’Â
‘It takes dedication to make a dull movie where Nicolas Cage plays Joseph and Jesus gets into a fistfight with Satan, but The Carpenter’s Son sets to its task with devotion, if little else.’Â
Oller criticizes the movie for failing to generate suspense by constantly returning to the domestic drama between Cage and Twigs instead of keeping the focus on the dark temptations Satan procures.
Ultimately, he compares The Carpenter’s Son unfavorably to other esteemed biblical films, writing that it ‘grapples with Jesus coming into his own without the bloody masochism of Mel Gibson, the contemplative complexity of Martin Scorsese, or the gaudy sheen of the worshipful bargain-bin epics.’
Some critics were more positive on the film, including IGN‘s Siddhant Adlakha.
He writes that The Carpenter’s Son is a ‘fascinating film of committed performances and violent imagery that hits in occasionally challenging ways, if you can ignore its conservative ideas surrounding modern gender norms.’
He praises Cage’s ‘deeply heartfelt performance’ and determines that the film should be viewed as a ‘religious drama knocking on the door of effective psychological horror,’ rather than an all-out fright fest.Â
For Slash Film, Chris Evangelista praises the horror film for its ‘genuine sense of menace’ and suggests that those familiar with biblical apocrypha may get more enjoyment out of it than viewers who only know the standard texts.
Despite many of the reviews being pans, critics were largely positive about the performance of Isla Johnston as Jesus’ mysterious friend.
She begins as a bad influence on the messiah who is later revealed to be Satan, and several reviewers praised the subtlety of Johnston’s performance, as well as the character’s intriguing role in an otherwise rote story.
However, some of the praise was tempered, as multiple critics questioned the decision to make the film’s Satan take an notably androgynous form.
