In the ancient kingdom of Judea, a woman (FKA Twigs) and her husband (Nicolas Cage), a carpenter by trade, welcome in a newborn son (Noah Jupe, later).  As rumor spreads about a common born heir to the throne, the King issues and edict that all males under two years old are to be slaughtered.  The family escapes, and their boy, now a teenager, begins to experience strange, miraculous occurrences lending credence to his role in the prophecy that led the king to issue his murderous order years before.  As the boy grows into his divine role, he struggles to balance that against his human nature, a struggle only exasperated by the arrival of an alluring stranger (Isla Johnston) sent to tempt him to turn his back on his destiny. 

Lofty Nathan writes and directs The Carpenter’s Son based on the non-canonical Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  The 94-minute film was acquired by Magnolia Pictures that afforded the film a limited theatrical release in mid-November on a little over 500 domestic screens.  Based off of a heretical text, the film was similarly not without controversy with the Philippines even going as far to ban the film outright for its depiction of Jesus. 

From the get go, Nathan is establishing something of a horror tone as Mary gives birth to Jesus in a firelit cave.  Simon Beaufils cinematography matches this tone and will expand on these opening images as Jesus grows and receives dreams and visions of his future.  From there, the film dips into the slaughter of the innocents – an oft overlooked, glossed over, and watered down bible story given its upsetting plotting – before settling down in a small rural town where Joseph is hired as a carpenter who will eventually be asked to carve an idol as a further challenge to his faith.  The Carpenter’s Son is inherently Jesus’ story as he comes to age not only as a boy but also as a divine figure, but it is continually framed and informed by Joseph’s crisis of faith culminating in an explosive exchange between him and Mary about who their son’s father truly is.  Unfortunately, that explosive tendency that makes Cage such an oddball idol really undermines the film as he is woefully miscast – or, rather, led astray by his director – and his performance is far and away in an entirely different kind of film than Nathan otherwise crafts. 

This disparity is most apparent in scenes shared between Cage and Jupe.  To Jupe’s credit, the young actor manages to grasp the central themes of the film and bring it to the forefront even against the mania which Cage brings and a script that is at once bloated and underdeveloped.  His performance is fueled by a simmering raged informed by the confusion that surrounds him both around his own origins and these haunting dreams that spell out a troubling future for the boy.  It is no easy feat as the actor must craft a performance that is rooted in confusion, but as the lead he cannot afford to be aimless lest the entire film likewise be led astray.  He does this by tapping into the very real anxieties of growing up and trying to balance his becoming his own person against the expectations of his father, both earthly and heavenly. 

The Carpenter’s Son is a film at war with itself and is armed with a script just a little too literal to utilize these dueling themes and plots to magnify the struggle which Jupe’s son is facing off against across the course of the narrative.