Parents' Guide to The Carpenter

This action drama will especially hit home for serious fans of faith-based films. But even casual viewers may notice that The Carpenter makes more efforts than is typical to portray biblical settings as diverse and skip the common Hollywood practice of having biblical characters speak in English accents—here, most characters have Middle Eastern accents (even if some of them are played by White actors). Even the main characters' Whiteness and American accents, which make them stick out like sore thumbs, are explained in a semi-realistic and semi-historically accurate way. That said, the montage of dates seen early in the film—e.g. "4000 B.C.: Adam and Eve," "2000 B.C.: Abraham," etc.—aligns closely with some Christians' views that the Earth is only a few thousand years old and casts a bit of doubt on some of the historical elements put forth in The Carpenter.

The film also suffers from odd tonal shifts and optics, including having Christian metal as the background music for the fight scenes, Hallmark-esque meet-cutes between Oren and love interest Mira (Aurora Florence), and portraying Yeshua as a really buff version of Jesus. And sometimes the film drags. But if you're ready to see Jesus as you've never seen him before (as well as watch a faith-based film that plays fast and loose with historical accuracy), give The Carpenter a try.