If you want my opinion about whether or not to see "Paul, Apostle of Christ": it's worth seeing. Heck, even The Village Voice's atheist film critic noted that "Paul, Apostle of Christ is Somehow Not Terrible." An understatement IMO, but worth noting for reasons I'll get to later.
I'm not qualified to write about the nuances of film, but I appreciate good art, good storyline, good writing, and good acting that doesn't debase itself to make a buck or force-feed an overt statement. There's nothing overwhelming about the movie, nothing really novel, but that for me was part of the appeal. Some reviewers said it was on the slow side, but I appreciated the pace. I was also very moved, coming close to tears in two scenes, and not being able to hold them back in one.
Acts is an incredible book in scripture--one of my personal favorites--because it tells the story of the early community of believers and those that fortified them. From geography to remembrance to inter-personal conflict, the story of the ecclesia is one anyone--believer or unbeliever--can appreciate. But because I am a believer, I viewed the film through the eyes of a believer, and that was what was so moving at times for me--these are my kin, my spiritual brethren...my family.
In all honesty, for most of my years as a Christian, I never "got" Paul. He was too much--that guy that could never rest, could never joke around, was just, well, obsessed and overboard. It has only been in the past few years when Paul has grown on me, and has become one of my favorite saints and figures. He was a man with a singular mission--to preach the Gospel of Christ, and woe to him if he does not preach it. (1 Cor 9:16)
But he was also a man with a past, a past that haunted him at times. Sure he did a complete one-eighty, but he had blood on his hands, the blood of believers. He was a man who knew redemption, what he had been saved from, and that resonated with me and was communicated in the film, such as when Ananias places his hands on Paul's eyes after his blinding and he is able to see again.
Another reviewer said that he was disappointed at the lack of joy and boldness portrayed in the early community. I saw it somewhat differently. I could relate to the fear, the trepidation, the very real possibility of losing one's life on account of the Way. The most moving scenes for me were those that involved children--the orphan child that offers to go out as a scout from the community in Rome and comes back beaten to death; the child that dies at Saul's hands; the children (and their parents) lead to "the games" and their ultimate death on account of their belief in Christ. I think of my own children, my own flesh and blood, and shudder to pray that these, even these, my Christ requires of me as a condition of being a disciple. I think of those through out the world--persecuted Christians in Iraq and Pakistan and Syria--who are modern day followers of the Way paying the price with their lives and witnessing to the faith.
The community in Rome were begging for "wisdom" from Paul, what the early disciples of the desert fathers would calls "a word," to sustain them in their faith. I had regarded Paul in the past as a kind of arrogant overachiever, but in recent years I have come to appreciate his unwavering, confident faith in Christ as a model for others to emulate to "be imitators of" when they had no living example of Christ in the flesh (1 Cor 11:1). He was bold, and took the beating like a man of conviction. How important this is for us as believers, to have those to turn to who believe without wavering and who can fortify others during the storms. How much love is shown by a man willing to lay down his life for his friends.
Paul and Luke were enigmas to Mauritius, the prison prefect. Paul boasted of his weaknesses (real men boast only of their strengths), reveled in his poverty (rather than desiring riches and wealth), and accepted what came to him (versus making his own way). He couldn't figure them out. Christians are called to be different, to be set apart, by the strength of their convictions by the Holy Spirit. Whereas the pagan gods could not cure the prefect's daughter, Luke by the power of Christ, does. And when Paul loses his head in the end of the film, he is welcomed in the Kingdom with open arms by the little girl whose life he had taken. This is family. This is the Christian family. This is home.
Everything these Christians do is upside down. Everything we do today as Christian believers is upside down in our neo-pagan culture. We are continuing the story where our brothers and sisters have left off. In a world that has gone mad, what's upside down might just be right-side-up in the end. And in the end, the only way they will know us is by our love. This, as Paul tells Luke, is The Way
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