Viewers of “The Last Supper” (Pinnacle Peak), director and co-writer Mauro Borrelli’s dramatization of events surrounding the Passion, may be able to tell that he has a strong visual background. A veteran art designer who has collaborated with such high-profile figures as Tim Burton, Borrelli gives us some warm and vivid imagery.
The tone of his film is, moreover, appropriately reverent. Yet some of the action feels forced and the mood occasionally becomes overwrought.
That problem doesn’t affect Jamie Ward’s performance as Jesus. Temple cleansing aside, his is a serene Savior. As for the Apostle Peter (James Oliver Wheatley), from whose viewpoint the story is told, his post-denial remorse flirts with excess but makes its dramatic point.
It’s mainly Robert Knepper’s twitchy Judas who comes across as emotionally overblown. And that isn’t all the actor’s fault.
Borrelli achieves some moments of genuine intensity as when Jesus washes the bewildered Peter’s feet. These come mostly when he and his script collaborator, John Collins, adhere closely to Scripture.
Their effort to flesh out the biblical account, by contrast, frequently goes awry. This is most glaring in the case of Judas’ motivation for treachery. He’s shown to be tempted by the devil, and money grubbing from the start. But his thinking is otherwise largely unintelligible. In the absence of any coherent characterization, Knepper has little with which to work.
Scenes showing Jesus being beaten bloody by his captors, while realistic, narrow the appropriate audience for “The Last Supper.” So, too, do the glimpses we’re given of the Crucifixion. Safe to say, this isn’t apt fare for those eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Easter Bunny.
For those with a more mature outlook on the meaning of the holiday, this recreation of the original events is, for the most part, theologically sound. Thus the action begins with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as well as Jesus’s prophecy about the gift of the Eucharist as recounted in St. John’s Gospel.
Cinematic sturdiness, however, is a different question.
The film contains some harsh gory violence and a suicide. The OSV News classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
