Jesus, Mary and Joseph Fiennes
Behold, a new genre — the pious police procedural
The Bible is a wondrous document, but it is open to interpretation, especially regarding its omissions. For instance, nowhere is it written that a Roman official was tasked by Pontius Pilate with locating the crucified body of Jesus/Yeshua (Cliff Curtis), before His disciples could claim their saviour had risen from the dead.
But neither does it say this didn’t happen.
This ecumenical fissure provides director and co-writer Kevin Reynolds (Waterworld, Tristan + Isolde), all the wiggle room he needs to insert Roman tribune Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) into the biblical story of the resurrection. Though the film gets off to a shaky start when Clavius meets an innkeeper who looks him over and asks: “Roman, huh?”
Clearly, no one will be speaking like Olivier in this one.
Clavius’s tale resembles nothing so much as an episode of C.S.I. Judea. After Jesus’s death on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea receives permission to bury the body in his family tomb. But a Jewish high priest worries the disciples will steal the corpse and then claim resurrection. Despite first-century police tape on the tomb, this is exactly what happens. Unless, you know, it just got up and walked away on its own.
Clavius is summoned before Pilate (Peter Firth), and given a real habeas corpus mission — find the corpse of Jesus. Says Pilate: “Without a corpse to prove him dead, we have a potential messiah.” Clavius orders his men to dig up all recently buried bodies, while he and his lieutenant Lucius (Tom Felton), start questioning apostles and other troublemakers, including Mary Magdalene (Maria Botto) and the disciple Bartholomew, who looks ready to step from AD 33 straight into the summer of 1967.
Bartholomew’s grinning testimony isn’t the only point at which the tone of the film swerves. Given Clavius’ brusque, police-like manners, when he comes across a shroud in the tomb I expected him to bark: “Take this to the lab in Turin for testing!”
But the overall mood is respectful, even pious; no surprise when you consider Risen was produced by Affirm Films, an arm of Sony Pictures specializing in Christian-themed entertainment.