The Book of Clarence
Written and Directed by Jeymes Samuel
Starring LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy and Benedict Cumberbatch
Classification 14A; 129 minutes
Opens in theatres Jan. 12
The Book of Clarence, Jeymes Samuel’s funk-flavoured spin on the New Testament, suffers a spiritual crisis of its own. The film gets lost somewhere between religious satire and a more earnest reinforcement of faith. Given its genre, this is an endearing crisis to have.
The biblical stoner comedy about a wayward 13th apostle is an even more ambitious proposition than Samuel’s last movie, The Harder They Fall. The writer and director (also a musician whose brother happens to be Seal) reclaimed Black people’s space in the pulpy Western, putting some soul on those quick draws, along with some stank on a bumping soundtrack featuring Jay-Z and Jamaican stars Barrington Levy and Koffee. This time, he brings sexy Detroit R&B and funk to Jerusalem 33 AD, where there are swords, sandals and bongs, and the messiah is wearing a crown of baby locs instead of thorns.
With a mostly Black cast led by LaKeith Stanfield, The Book of Clarence pokes and teases at the gospels, as though it’s tearing out the pages to roll up what one character calls “ungodly herbs.” There’s a good deal of laid-back fun and a rousing sense of inclusion in all its sacrilege.
If only Stanfield’s performance were as rousing. The actor, who tends to play characters who keep their head down, brought such simmering cool to his role as a whispery steady handed gunslinger in The Harder They Fall. But that cool can just feel cold and lethargic when he’s meant to be playing a charlatan orator passionately working up a crowd and competing with Christ for attention – and shekels.
Stanfield’s Clarence is an herb peddling hustler taking care of his ailing mother (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) while his twin brother, the apostle Thomas (also Stanfield), follows Jesus. Clarence isn’t as enamoured by Christ as everyone else. He shrugs off miracles as scams and prides himself for having a clearer moral compass than the devout disciples who abandon those in need to pursue some so-called higher calling.
But after Clarence loses a chariot race to Mary Magdalene (Teyonah Taylor) and finds himself indebted to a local heavy (Eric Kofi Abrefa), he reluctantly commits to being a false prophet, peddling counterfeit miracles as his path toward profit. These snake oil hustles should be a lot more fun than they are, but Stanfield struggles to sell them, especially when his character maintains an unconvincing selflessness throughout.
Instead, Samuel gets a lot of comic mileage from his supporting cast. David Oyelowo as John the Baptist is hilariously hostile; Alfre Woodard as the Virgin Mary stubbornly defends the whole immaculate conception thing; and French actor Omar Sy as Barabbas is a gladiator eager to bust Roman skulls.
To that last point, The Book of Clarence only ever feels like there are stakes when dealing with the Romans as an occupying force who card people in the streets and conduct indiscriminate sweeps searching for the messiah. Samuel, modelling those tensions in his film off confrontations between Black communities and the police, briefly brings the story into focus, playing with the idea of a messiah as anyone who can unite marginalized people against the systems of oppression that pit them against each other.
But the film doesn’t sustain that energy. It lacks any sense of dramatic urgency, as it clamours for some sense of purpose, or at least a consistent tone between its competing influences.
The Book of Clarence can feel stuck in a purgatory between Monty Python, Martin Scorsese and William Wyler. There’s satire but it isn’t as flagrant as Life of Brian. There’s a genuine spiritual interrogation akin to The Last Temptation of Christ but nowhere near as carnal, curious and transcendent. And ultimately, there’s reverence for biblical epics like Ben-Hur, which, from its exhilarating opening chariot race to its overriding sense of piousness, The Book of Clarence clings to.
No movie could thread that needle. That Book of Clarence even tries is what makes it so likeable.
Special to The Globe and Mail