Based on a series of pious novels that don't do very much for the non-Christian's perception of Christians, Joshua is, predictably, a Christian film that hurts the cause of Christianity in an essential and mortal way by its very visibility. It confirms the popular stereotype that people of the church have no sense of humour, no sense of irony, and absolutely no taste in art: Joshua is to movies as Creed is to music. In a time in which the Catholic Church is under an unprecedented amount of scrutiny for protecting the pederasts amongst them, something as howlingly inept and unwatchable as this picture might distract temporarily from the clergy's woes, but not for the reasons or in the way intended. The only question it arouses is if organized Christianity is this condescending and mind-numbing--if organized Christianity is broken--why bother fixing it?

Beatific Joshua (Tony Goldwyn) solemnly strolls into the tiny town of Auburn, rents space in a manger and mends broken (wooden) hearts. He carves a statue of St. Peter out of an ash tree stump that he lugs around for miles to the bemusement of the bumpkin townsfolk, returns sight to a blind woman, rebuilds a Baptist church, and raises a stuttering simpleton from the dead. He reminds stern Father Tardone (F. Murray Abraham) how to love, reminds the pope (Giancarlo Giannini) of a promise, saves Father Pat (Kurt Fuller) from leaving his vocation, and shows widow Maggie (Stacy Edwards) that God is love despite His affection for killing husbands and placing stuttering simpletons in dire peril so His son can raise them from the dead. Did I mention that Joshua is Christ?

The film has Jesus build a church (which the Biblical Christ did not and would not endeavour to do) while making Him into some kind of revivalist tent huckster, turning parlour tricks for the amusement of His flock. In its own way, Joshua is as blasphemous and nonsensical as a Luis Buñuel film without the latter's attendant intelligence, poetry, passion, and genius. Joshua's screenplay is astoundingly bad; ditto the acting. For the sake of balance, Joshua is also mawkishly over-scored and directed like a toddler beats a drum.

A longish and worst episode of "Highway to Heaven" or "Touched by an Angel", Joshua offers a hilariously awkward series of excuses to dimwittedly proselytize. The film believes that those not of the faith are dimwits while being entertaining only for those of the faith who are. I don't necessarily have a problem with the message: I understand that many forms of Christianity are evangelical and have, in my day, been invited to a "heathen day" or two in misguided attempts to sell me salvation in the life of a sheep. The problem with Joshua isn't its message or its conviction in its message, but rather its conviction that faith is the most attractive when free of all traces of recognizable humanity and controversy. (The very things that the Bible sought to solve with Christ and the New Testament, ironically enough.)

Joshua is a fearful and patronizing sermon delivered expressly for the sake of children and fanatical shut-ins. It's for an audience who reads "The Good News Bible" instead of "The King James," folks looking for faith in small words, comforting images, artless emotions, and simplified theologies. Joshua is, in other words, an eloquent justification for those disdainful of the Church--how interesting that Bill Paxton's Frailty, released one week earlier and portraying an axe murderer slaying for the Lord, is actually the more compelling portrait of faith, the faithful, and faithfulness.-Walter Chaw