Son of God

The life of Jesus Christ (Diogo Morgado) is depicted here from Nativity to Resurrection. As a devotion, the movie will comfort believers with its sincerity, but as drama it's low watt. There are casual anachronisms—talk of Roman “occupation” (a term lifted from Jesus Christ Superstar, of all places), and Jesus has not followers but “supporters,” as if he's a candidate for something. Director Christopher Spencer leans heavily on extreme close-ups to conceal the picture's limited budget (much of which was apparently spent on a CGI model of Jerusalem). Worse, he paces the movie with leaden reverence: Even the most casual and forgetful churchgoer can finish Morgado's lines long before he gets around to saying them. Performances are sincere but nondescript; only Greg Hicks' snarling Pilate makes an impression, and not a good one.