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Nicolas Cage may be the ideal pick for a audacious scary movie centered on the biblical figure, however not for the motivations certain audiences may think. Truthfully, Cage does not actually act as the central religious figure in The Carpenter’s Son: his character is listed merely as a craftsman. The actor is framed as the Joseph within this narrative, striving to uphold his religious convictions while his son (played by the young actor), his now-teenage foster child, commences to show miraculous gifts. The explanation it’s difficult to envision any other major actor playing this part is that even as his character becomes stricken with numerous trials, Nicolas Cage appears nearly touchingly confident that this dark, somber feature is deserving of his effort.

Cage's Current Film Selections

Cage has been allocating his time more selectively in recent years. He still makes more movies than the majority of regular audiences will ever see — for instance, were you informed that he has filmed three separate frontier films recently? — but he also adds high-profile A24/Neon gigs such as one recent hit, another notable movie, and a further title. The Carpenter’s Son seems like a similar project, as it’s genre-adjacent, possibly controversial, and handles a campy-sounding premise quite seriously.

The Film's Plot and Handling

Regrettably, filmmaker Lotfy Nathan does not justify viewer engagement. The Carpenter’s Son opens in a compellingly nomadic place, marketed as drawing from an obscure religious text regarding Christ’s childhood. Cage's character, The Mother, and the boy relocate from place to place, anxious of doctrinal intolerance or doubt about their son's unusual abilities. “Trouble pursues us,” Cage mournfully notes. It goes on as evil influences attack them where they currently live, initiating on that well-known scriptural test for The Boy.

Occasionally, this production resembles an demonic possession-type possession movie, but none of the central roles are explicitly taken over. On the contrary, they become increasingly alienated from one another, while these forces infect a nearby girl (Isla Johnston, credited as an outsider) who The Boy bonds with, and provides each character disturbing images of a dark tomorrow. The Carpenter notably grapples with his position within the plot, sometimes chastising his child who mystifies him.

Debate and Care

The content is apt to court controversy, and the director approaches it with a lot of sensitivity — too much, maybe. The concept of a teenage boy facing his eventual sacrifice and tempted by unknown powers is certainly terrifying, but the filmmaker may be cautious about looking exploitative and anxious to telegraph his intentions, therefore he regularly withdraws to darkly ominous visuals. The figures continually reflect — FKA Twigs, who demonstrated notable talent in a recent film update, of all things — cedes her role to her character's costume, at times punctuated by several gnarly horror imagery.

Cage's Performance and Film's Shortcomings

At the same time, the actor flirts with exactly the kind of overacting that his ironic fans might be looking for. An instance (also included) in promotional material in which he flips out and screams “My belief is broken!” When this sort of florid outburst is a component of your religious scary film, perhaps a more openly absurd style would be more effective of the actor's readiness to exaggerate when necessary. On the other hand, the film echoes the less successful low-budget films the actor filmed during that period — apart from the B-movies but rather the serious stories and ghost stories that typically appear interesting, and frequently include several notable Cage moments, but ultimately feel like, well, cheap home video fare.

Honestly, some of those, although simpler, were more entertaining in general. Here is where I have to violate my usual practice, not religious but work-oriented: Previously, a respected mentor persuaded me to remove words like “boring” or “dull” from my film-criticism vocabulary. These phrases communicate minimal other than a individual and generically described restlessness, avoiding the duty of vibrantly communicating the mental and feeling of viewing a particular movie. It's challenging to communicate boredom without seeming uninteresting personally. It's equally vague as terming a movie “interesting.” “Say more,” in other words.

Yet, I acknowledge, I was bored for a large part of The Carpenter’s Son. In its defense, it’s a devotional type of stultification, not because this movie is lecturing, but as it requires a sort of dutiful submission to watch it. After a while in the beginning, this feature locks into a cyclic tempo of ongoing suffering, and does not