The latest Jesus biopic presents a small and inspiring take about the one who become known as “The Young Messiah”. At the tender age of 7, Jesus (Adam Graves-Neal) lives with his parents Mary (Sara Lazzaro) and Joseph (Vincent Walsh) in Alexandria, Egypt, where they have fled to avoid a massacre of children by King Herod of Israel. Jesus knows that his parents have secrets they are keeping from him about his destiny, but is never told of his biggest prophecy. Jesus seeks the kind of secrets about his birth and about special traits that make him very different from other boys. His parents, however, believe him too young to grasp the truth of his miraculous birth and purpose. Learning that the murderous Herod is dead, they view this as an opportunity to set out to return to their home of Nazareth in Israel, unaware that Herod’s namesake son (Jonathan Bailey) is, like his father, determined to see the boy Jesus dead and suffering for his treason. “The Young Messiah” is the big screen directoral debut of Cyrus Nowrasteh, and is rated PG-13 for violent material.

“The Young Messiah” certainly has enough rich colorful set choices and original ideas for the character, centering around the era of the young Christ, but it’s safe choices in script, as well as flat-falling finale leaves this film on the negative side of religious genre films. The movie starts off with a lot of interest in the form of a young Jesus curing the sick, while questioning the reasons why he has these powers. This sounds like a silly comparison, but in that aspect the film really does feel like a superhero origins story, complete with a young protagonist on his search for the real meaning of it all and others around him who view him as an alien. This is definitely the strong point of the film, and on top of it we are presented with some rich artistic choices in a cinematography that stays very faithful to the distinct era. The wardrobe and set pieces are given a lot of thought for detail, and we certainly find ourselves as an audience being easily able to lose ourselves in such a story.

Then the second act happens, and it all just kind of falls flat. The movie builds and builds over the final hour of the nearly two hour feature, preparing us for a showdown with Jesus’s family and the Romans that could turn very ugly quickly because of the Romans orders to kill the prophet at any cost. The problem is that the movie cools down during the second act to tell some expositional backstory, but it never seems to awake or rise up from that setting. The movie stays constantly tame and protected so not to give the audience anything too off of the page from the source material. The film makes clear in the opening text that this movie is based mostly on speculation. Well if that’s the case, why couldn’t the movie play around a little with the screenplay that is severely lacking anything of emotion for such a finale? When the showdown happens, it’s accompanied by a heart- pounding score by John Debney, as well as quick-edit cuts of all of the characters involved, but then it just sort of goes the opposite direction. This was of course predictable for anyone who knows Jesus’s story in the later years of his life, but I still would’ve liked to have seen a little more resolve for this very important plot point.

Even with the problems in storyline development, “The Young Messiah” certainly has enough positives to live up to it’s big shoes it’s trying to fill. For one, the performances and casting choices are right on the mark. Adam Graves-Neal is a breath of fresh air for child actors everywhere. He is really riveting as the film’s title character, never substituting overused dialogue in favor of a visual look that will burn a hole through his opposers. Graves-Neal commands Jesus with a nice combination of childlike innocence and powerful maturity, but never sacrifices one for the other. My only problem with his portrayal was the English accent that the boy carried from his real life to the character. This of course doesn’t make sense with the accuracy of the story, but it’s a small speck on a bigger picture. Sara Lazzaro is also notable as Mary. The film leans more on her and Vincent Walsh for a majority of the second half of the film, but both of them supply such an original take for their character psyches. For Joseph, it’s refreshing to see his take on Jesus not actually being his biological father. He still serves as the boy’s protector, but there is certainly enough there to seek how he feels about this immaculate conception. For Mary, this is a 14 year old girl who had to grow up fast, while giving birth to the most important person on Earth. There’s a lot of pressure for her keeping this secret from her maturing little boy, and with each reveal of power, that secret gets thinner and thinner. The three actors leave nothing on the table as far as performances go, and the intrigue never lacks when either of them has to take the reigns for a scene.

Director Cyrus Nowrasteh crafts an effective, understated tone that respects his story and characters enough to let it speak for itself. With a more climatic ending, as well as more spread out pacing, “The Young Messiah” could’ve prospered as an entertaining AND realistic telling of Jesus and his journeys. As it stands, the film is just an interesting enough concept prequel to a bigger story we all already know.

5/10