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always like to preface reviews of movies like
"Joshua", which is loaded with elements that can rile a person
depending on his/her perspective, by stating some facts about myself. I am not
Christian, Baptist, or Jewish. In fact, I have a hard time deciphering the
difference between the 3. I do know that Jews wear those funny hats, and that
Christians used to be lion food during Roman times. But if you were to ask me
what's the difference between a priest, a father, a reverend, and a minister, I
couldn't tell you. (Although I do know that a rabbi is the guy who works in a
Jewish church.) The point is, religion isn't my thing, and if I was really
pressed for answers, I would tell you I'm a lapsed Buddhist, with great emphasis
on lapsed.
"Joshua" is a modern re-telling of the Jesus
Christ mythos set in a small town somewhere in the South. Jesus Christ has been
given a new name and is played by Tony Goldwyn ("The
Sixth Day") as the titular character. Since my knowledge of Jesus'
adventures before that unfortunate nailed-to-cross thing at the hands of the Romans is
limited at best (actually I can credit TV's "Touch by an Angel" for
pretty much all of my Christianity education), I couldn't tell you if
"Joshua" is a faithful adaptation of the Son of God's life or not.
The movie opens with Joshua arriving in town and
immediately causing a sensation. Joshua lives in a barn, works as a carpenter
and sculptor, and besides stirring the townsfolk to rebuild a destroyed Baptist
church, he also manages to rile the town's head priest. (Again, you'll forgive
me if I don't quite know why a town has a Baptist and a Christian church,
or why one church has two priests.) It's immediately obvious Joshua is
not an ordinary fellow, since besides restoring the eyesight of a blind woman,
he also brings a local man back to life after a fatal accident.
The pacing of "Joshua" is a little too episodic
for my taste, but maybe that's because the whole budget for the film is probably
less than your average episode of the aforementioned "Touch by an
Angel." The cinematography by Bruce Surtees and direction by Jon Purdy
seems to bear out that last statement, because "Joshua" is not a very
visually complex film. Things are workmanlike in appearance and the acting is
average at best, with only standouts belonging to the very reliable Tony Goldwyn
as the lead and co-star Kurt Fuller, who plays one of the two priests working at
that one church.
What does set "Joshua" apart from your big-budget
movie is its heart. There's no doubt that "Joshua" has a lot of
inspiration, and although the film uses very broad strokes to show Joshua's
affects on the townspeople, it can all be forgiven because of the knowledge that
the film has its heart in the right place. If anything, I'm surprised the movie
is so short at just under 90 minutes of running time. The film is such a breezy
tale that I was a bit disappointed it ended so soon, and that not everything I
wanted explored got their chance in the spotlight.
Based on a novel by Joseph Girzone, "Joshua"
should have been much longer, if just to flesh out more of the townspeople,
their problems, and just exactly how Joshua affect each one of them
individually. For instance, there's one entertaining scene where it seems as if
Joshua was at multiple places at the same time. This could have been expanded
on, as well as the reactions to Joshua's curing of a blind girl and, later on,
his resurrection of a dead man. Everything seemed too rush, too edited. I would
have liked more background and follow-through on Joshua's two
"miracles."
If you were wondering if the film questions rather Joshua
is the real deal or if he's some conman or even a nut masquerading as a miracle
worker, you needn't bother. The film never offers up any worthwhile ambiguity
about Joshua's identity or his motivations. He is the Son of God, reborn
as a hitchhiker that's handy with a hammer and carving knife. The film might
have been more entertaining, or at least more complex, if it had attempted to
play with Joshua's identity a little bit more.
The budget for "Joshua" is probably not big
enough to feed a Hollywood film crew for half a production day. With that in
mind, it's a wonder they were able to get an actor of Tony Goldwyn's caliber to
participate in the first place, because Goldwyn makes "Joshua".
Co-star Stacy Edwards provides nice eye candy as the emotionally devastated
Maggie, a reporter looking for an escape from town and her pain. Like the rest
of the townspeople, Maggie finds comfort in Joshua's presence, and begins to
suspect he's more than he seems.
There's no doubt that the audience for "Joshua"
is Christian moviegoers. The atheist among us would probably be too busy
scoffing at the movie's many themes to remember to be open-minded enough to give
the film even a remote chance. It's interesting to note that with films like
"Left Behind"
and others, so-called Christian Movies are still a burgeoning genre in its
infancy. Right now they're mostly low-budget ventures, as befitting their small
but growing niche, but it will be very intriguing to see what Christian Movies
will look like in 5 or 10 years from now, when the producers of such films have
Hollywood-size budgets to play with. I see big things ahead.
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