REVIEW: 'The Vessel' surpasses religious movie expectations
Ellis Clopton
13 hrs ago
It’s tough trying to sell the idea of a religious movie - a shame, considering the genre includes classics that have garnered mass critical success. Classic religious movies such as “The Believer,” “The Passion of the Christ,” and, my personal favorite, the 1956 masterpiece “Ben-Hur,” are renown for their critical acclaim.
The religious focus allows directors and screenwriters to explore themes such as piety, devotion, religious strife and the struggle of maintaining faith. The problem is these movies devote far too much time trying to impress an idea or a message upon the audience and completely forget that a key element in film-making is in crafting the method of delivery. The idea of hidden systemic religious persecution in modern society is a powerful one indeed, but if the idea is carried by amateur actors performing a lazily drafted script, then the result is a bad movie experience.
When I saw that Julio Quintana’s film “The Vessel” was both a religious and an arthouse drama, I went into it with skepticism. However, I was intrigued by the featuring of bilingual actors and the movie was shot twice in order to showcase this. The two versions are nearly identical, but the effort was much appreciated.
I was delightedly impressed with the film.
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/arts_and_entertainment/review-the-vessel-surpasses-religious-movie-expectations/article_d7ad1b80-91b0-11e6-b975-4fa6c16595c8.html