Christians have always wanted actors playing Yeshua of Nazareth to be good looking Anglo-Saxon types, a little fashion-modelly, a good jawline, lightly tanned like a surfer, maybe a bit sweaty but always with wavy brown hair. Even Martin Scorsese adhered to this expectation. Was a full-face photographic closeup of a sexy J.C. ever used for a Passion of the Christ one-sheet? If so I can’t find it. Here, in any case, is a closeup of a handsome Argentinian actor (Rodrigo Santoro) with a strong, straight nose and damp, stringy hair and a crown of thorns, captured in a somewhat forlorn mood as he hangs from a cross on Golgotha. Which is an effective way to sell Timur Bekmambetov‘s Ben-Hur (Paramount, 8.19) — a “Tale of the Christ’ from the stocky, bearded director of Wanted and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
