Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

and the body was still there. That seems to be the heart of the matter in this religious mystery/drama. It has some good acting mostly supplied by Antonio Banderas. Some nice, but overused camera shots of the city of Jerusalem. A fairly solid plot, but it sags in the middle. Not a bad watch, if you happen to enjoy movies on this topic.

The acting is good for the most part. Banderas is his usual brilliant and tormented self. He was a perfect cast for this role, since Gabriel Byrne was in Stigmata. Olivia Williams was competent as the Archeologist, Sharon Golban. Derek Jacobi is good at his part as Father Lavelle, scientist and priest. I think Jason Flemyng is excellent as Father Winstead. His character adds a little flavor to this movie when perhaps it is most needed. But I wasn't real impressed with John Shrapnel as Moshe Cohen.

As for cinematography, this movie has some beautiful aerial wide shots of Jerusalem, but they have no real relevance to the story and they are over used to the point of annoyance. There are also some good bird's eye view shots that do add to the story. They are helpful in some of the action sequences around the tomb. There are a couple of fairly nice explosions scenes, nothing to write home about, but not terrible either.

The plot is fairly solid. Its a nice idea, destroy the basis of the Christian faith by proving Christ was never risen from the grave by finding his body complete with dated artifacts that would coincide with such a find.

Sharon, Williams, an Israeli archeologist that discovers a body in a tomb in a Palestinian's "basement." The artifacts seem to point in the direction that it is the actual body of Christ. So the Vatican sends in Father Matt Gutierrez, Banderas, to investigate. He has a background not in archeology, but in military intelligence. He should be able to handle this situation even though it is a political/religious bomb waiting to explode.

There are slow to form entanglements between religious groups; The Vatican wanting to suppress this evidence, and another religious sect stealing the artifacts because they do not believe in messing with the dead. The political people get involved also, Palestinian groups trying to keep a wedge between Rome and Israel and Israel trying to get Rome to recognize Jerusalem--united as the capital of Israel. Plus we have two priests, Matt and the first scientist (priest) to look at the body, Father Lavelle, questioning their faith. It deals with a multitude of plots and issues, it just doesn't juggle them well. It starts out well and ends well, but the middle takes quite a hit and sags. I prefer Stigmata to this film for a questioning of religion film. The ending is kind of a let down. It was if they said, now we must wrap this up the politically correct way as not to step on any toes. Its a fairly good film, worth renting off the 99 cent shelf.

DVD: The DVD really doesn't have any special features besides being able to watch the film in Widevision or full screen and a couple of bonus trailers. Since this is a dark film (I had to turn the brightness up), the picture is probably better on DVD.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older