March 9, 2016
“The Young Messiah” (in theaters March 11) is not just a family film, it’s a Holy Family film. The movie, based on a novel by Ann Rice, portrays one year in the life of Jesus when he is seven years old. The year when he starts asking the question, “Who am I?” He has questions and Joseph and Mary avoid answering him. They are trying to protect him but Jesus persists. He knows he’s different but not why.
In this film Joseph (Vincent Walsh) is not a cipher, he’s central. He’s a strong man of faith doing his best to protect his wife and son. Mary (Sara Lazzaro) is alternately strong and vulnerable as she struggles to figure out how to be the mother of the messiah. Adam Greaves-Neal, who plays Jesus, captures both the innocence and strength that the role demands.
The Holy Family consists not just of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. There is also Mary’s older brother, Cleopas, his wife and two children. Their daughter is Jesus’ best friend and playmate and his older cousin, James, is his reluctant confidant.
Good versus evil tension is built in the film as Jesus is stalked by a blond, bearded devil in a black cloak played by Rory Keenan, who, also, taunts Jesus with the identity question, “Who are you?”
The movie was shot in southern Italy with British and Irish actors. (When I worked in TV movies, I loved working with actors from the U.K. On set they were professional, they showed up to work and saved the drama for screen.) You’ll probably recognize Sean Bean, who plays the Centurion, Severus. His character provides the life-or-death tension of the film as he hunts down the boy Jesus for a psychopathic King Herod.
The film was directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, a TV and film writer/director who also did the feature film “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” which was banned in Iran. The executive producer is Chris Columbus, a practicing Catholic and one of the highest grossing directors in Hollywood. He helmed two of the “Harry Potter” films, the two “Home Alone” films and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
It’s a good film aesthetically, unlike so many independent faith-based films. The script works, the actors are good and the special effects are credible. From a religious point of view, it is a good film because it gives us a practical and theological insight into what we mean when we say “incarnation.” In this interpretation, Jesus came to be more than to do. For me, the answer to the question he asks, “Who am I?” is, “I Am,” the name God tells Moses on Mt. Sinai.