Mr. Movie review: ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ isn’t Bad

“Paul, Apostle of Christ” casts Jim Caviezel — who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s awful “The Passion of the Christ” — as the apostle Luke. He’s the Luke of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Luke also wrote the book of Acts which — to keep non-believers in the loop — is the history of the apostles and the founding of the original church.

Luke connects with James Falkner’s Paul the Apostle in Rome. Paul is in prison and sentenced to death. Luke wants Paul to give him the details of how he founded churches all over the then civilized world. Though Paul isn’t supposed to have visitors, the apostle’s prison overlord is a Centurion who is a nice guy and lets Luke visit.

“Paul, Apostle of Christ” is better than most. There is very little chemistry between Caviezel and Faulkner, who are supposed to be like father and son. Where the film clicks is in the relationship between the Centurion — done wonderfully by “Unfaithful’s” Oliver Martinez — and the apostle.

The two actors exchange some exceptionally rich, deep and human scenes. Their debate about Christ and the Christian mantra of love works. Not much else in the film does.

The largest percentage of people seeing this will be believers. Christian movies are a crap shoot. Some are very, very good, but most have a lot in common with the feel-good drivel on TV’s Hallmark Channel.

“Paul, Apostle of Christ” lies somewhere in between.

This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ isn’t Bad."