Risen review: Biblical tale that drifts deep into Sunday School territory

The Coen brothers' recent Hail, Caesar! hangs about the making of a Biblical epic of the same name. That inner Hail, Caesar! – concerning a Roman humbled by Christ – is conspicuously modelled on Ben Hur, but it bares eerie similarities to this tolerable Easter entertainment from Hollywood veteran Kevin Reynolds.

Joseph Fiennes plays a character who feels plucked from an apocryphal gospel. Clavius, a fierce Roman warrior, is summoned by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) and asked to track down the missing body of Christ. In the process, he meets the disciples and learns more about this nascent cult.

The formal differences between Hail, Caesar! and Risen tell us much about how attitudes to Christianity have changed. Up until the 1960s, Hollywood (despite the creative input of so many Jews) treated "Christian" as a synonym for "American" and, thus, when telling Bible stories, the moguls felt content pitching such films at a general audience. There were thrills, jokes and chariot races. You even got the occasional sexy musical number.

These days, biblical films are invariably directed towards a “faith audience”. They tend to be reverential, respectful and deathly dull. This emanation from Affirm Films, Sony’s evangelical sub-studio, is a great deal better than most.

There are some satisfactorily violent battles and Reynolds, director of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, even plants early doubts as to the divinity of the "resurrection". But as events drag on, the miracles seem more, well, miraculous and we drift deep into Sunday School territory.

It will play well enough with those in search of affirmation, but even the most observant attendee may balk at the wearingly uncharismatic performance by Cliff Curtis as Jesus. Never mind a three-person God, this Nazarene would have trouble selling a fridge to the uninitiated. I deny him three times.