The Book of Clarence – An Overambitious Misfire

Once the first trailer for The Book of Clarence dropped, it revealed a film that looked to be ambitious but it also revealed issues that threatened to derail it. The follow-up to Jeymes Samuel’s stylish western The Harder They Fall, his latest maintains much of that style though it arguably overshadows its substance. While he is multi-hyphenated talent, the film could afford to have some of his flourishes toned down, at least in the music department where he composed most of its music. Dealing with the realm of religion this time around, the story is merely religion-adjacent. However, it can’t quite find a way to navigate through that, resulting in a tonal mess as it struggles to figure out what kind of film it wanted to be. This blaxploitation-esque romp is at times a drama, a mildly-successful satire, and/or journey of self discovery, the combination of the three, and the different tones they encompass, along with some thinly-veiled social commentary didn’t quite work together. In the end, there was clearly a better film in there and had it picked a direction to go, it would surely have fared better. Left to hold the pieces together was LaKeith Stanfield whose effortless charisma could only do so much as he is asked to balance its many tones. He and a smattering of short scene-stealing performances keep it somewhat compelling to watch in spite of its flaws.

Framed as an old Hollywood biblical tale, The Book of Clarence is a modern interpretation of the story of the last days of Jesus Christ from the perspective of a normal man named Clarence (Stanfield). Getting by on street smarts, he still struggled to make ends meet and provide for himself and his family all the while proving to himself and others, but most importantly to Virinia (Anna Diop), the woman he loves, that he wasn’t a nobody. Living a life revolving around petty crime and other questionable decisions, Clarence became consumed by his compulsion to prove everyone else wrong. Owing money to a man named Jedediah the Terrible (Eric Kofi Abrefa), also Virinia’s brother, he turned to his usual tricks and schemes until they proved fruitless. However, once Jesus of Nazareth (Nicholas Pinnock) and his apostles came to Jerusalem and Clarence witnessed the hold they had over others, he saw it as an opportunity. He, and his best friend Elijah (Cyler), worked together to lean into this for what they believed to be a foolproof plan to protect and enrich themselves. Meanwhile, those same figures were a sore spot for him as his twin brother Thomas (Stanfield) abandoned he and his mother Amima (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) to become one of Jesus’ apostles. Be it for revenge against his brother or just a selfish ploy on his own behalf, it’s unclear what Clarence’s true motives were.

A journey of self discovery at its core, the drama and the satire often found themselves clashing with one another, straddling that line without ever picking a side. Clarence, a fervent atheist, turned to baptism but when that failed, he then turned to attempting to become Jesus’ thirteenth apostle but was then laughed out of the room. Given an opportunity to prove himself, he was tasked to free a group of slaves. Finding a way to fail at that, he only ended up with one, a gladiator named Barabbas (Sy). From there, he, Clarence, and Elijah made quite the dynamic as Clarence concocted the scheme of all schemes which was to become the new messiah. Believing Jesus’ miracles to simply be a series of tricks, he went about performing his own so-called miracles for the masses. The satire of Christianity is plain to see, however, the balance between it and the need to advance Clarence’s journey made for some slight tonal issues. Ultimately a scheme that had gone on too far, it was the conclusion of a journey that saw him forced to reconcile his personal beliefs by looking outward instead of inward as he sought to find his true identity. That being said, Clarence’s actions were not without consequences (audiences could probably figure out what they were) at the hands of the Romans who were stand-ins for thin social commentary.

Technically speaking, the film is faultless, outside Samuel’s self-indulgent use of his music which tended to dominate certain scenes. The cinematography, using wide shots of Matera, Basilicata, Italy to recreate Jerusalem, was beautiful with the epitome of that being an exciting horse-drawn chariot chase early on before dropping all that intensity almost immediately after. The costumes and production design are also well done but none of that truly matters when the script lets the film down. Remaining at a crossroads of tones and themes, it only suffered as a whole, trying to pick from several directions without doing any one direction well enough. As mentioned, a modern interpretation of a biblical story, the dialog was not given the same treatment therefore stuck out more often than not. Left to deal with all of that was Stanfield as Clarence (and Thomas). While his charm is without question, he could only do so much. Asked to shoulder so much and take his character(s) through the film’s messy execution of a story full of various leaps, gags, and social commentary. He’s easily the best thing about a film that could have been so much more. Joined by short, scene-stealing turns from Sy as Barabbas and David Oyelowo as John the Baptist give it some life though could only do so much.

The Book of Clarence is yet the latest example of an ambitious film that takes big swings but misses. Taking on too much, any message gets lost in that lack of direction. Though its target audience is unclear, fans of Stanfield and its cast may find enough entertainment here.

still courtesy of Legendary Entertainment

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.