Gli amici di Gesù - Tommaso

This is all conjecture, nothing fits, and it is not even convincing. Thomas is the central character, but he makes a poor character, the film not even touching on the fact that he might have been Jesus' brother, "Thomas Didymus", and thereby could have had a closer standing with Jesus than most. This is the last of Raffalele Mertes' Biblical series, and it is not the best one, Mary Magdalene being among the first and best ones, but they are all marked by exquisite music and settings, and Maria Grazia Cucinotta as Mary Magdalene appears here also. She and Erica Maria Modugno as Jesus' mother are the best characters here, while Danny Quinn as Jesus also is convincing enough. Longinus is given a major part, all made up, like several other characters as well. Barabbas also has an important part, and performs it well, although he ends up a corpse. The main default is with the script, it does not depart in any way from the gospel versions, and the adding to it does not make it better. The middle part, after "Mary Magdalene", is about Judas, and it could be interesting. Hopefully that will provide a more interesting character than the rather pathetic, constantly desperate and extremely volatile Thomas encountered here, a leading character without a character.

It starts with a chase scene through the streets of Jerusalem. I don't remember any chases in the gospels. All is quickly explained then we're back in familiar territory. So it goes speculating then returning to the revered texts.

This a kind of a TV movie treatment of the apostle Thomas. Aside from the Gospel anecdote the movie creates a pretty good story around his lack of faith and a search for the body of Jesus. Joseph of Arimethea is a compassionate figure in bridging the Jewish leadership, Romans and apostles. The supporting cast is quite good.

Fans of The Life of Brian, like me, will get a kick out of the Romans speaking with low British accents. Some stilted dialog might cause amusement too. But the quality acting, visual flair and solid production values make this far superior to the earnest, dogmatic, artless though well meaning Christian productions in circulation.

Historical and Biblical accuracy aside this is good storytelling.