THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER – PART ONE

Yes — easily. This film takes the first two episodes of THE CHOSEN's fifth season and turns them into something genuinely excellent: strong performances, gorgeous cinematography (especially the candlelit Last Supper scenes), and a script that stays remarkably close to the Gospels themselves.

It doesn't shy away from weight. Jesus's grief over what's coming is portrayed with real gravity, and His confrontation with the corruption outside the Temple is dramatically intense — He overturns tables and drives out vendors with a whip. No one is hurt, but the scene carries force. That's as edgy as it gets.

What you get in exchange is a film that takes Christ's divinity, His coming sacrifice, and His concern for the human heart seriously — and makes for excellent family viewing in the process. Watch it together, and expect to talk afterward.

Holy Week begins. Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to a crowd shouting His name as Messiah — yet He doesn't celebrate with them, because He alone understands what's coming. As He teaches in parables about death giving way to something greater, His disciples grow uneasy, sensing He's talking about more than metaphor.

Meanwhile, powerful men in the city — a Roman governor profiting handsomely off Passover pilgrims, a high priest already plotting — begin moving against Him. And just outside the Temple, Jesus is about to see exactly how far His Father's house has been corrupted.

Four stars, and the film earns every one. The performances are strong across the board, and the cinematography — particularly the candlelit Last Supper sequences — captures the somberness of the moment beautifully. The pacing balances Jesus's grief with the disciples' confusion in a way that feels honest rather than rushed.

Most impressively, the film stays remarkably faithful to the Gospel accounts; nearly every beat comes straight from Scripture. The Temple-cleansing sequence, in particular, is dramatically powerful without tipping into gratuitousness. This is a film that trusts its source material enough to let it breathe.

This film exalts exactly what the Gospels exalt. It affirms both the full humanity and full divinity of Jesus — His real grief, His real authority. It stresses that God cares most about the heart, not mere outward observance of the law, driving that point home through the Pharisees, who keep the letter of the law while their hearts are exposed as hollow and hypocritical. And it never shrinks from the cost of the cross: Jesus feels the weight of what's coming and chooses it anyway, for the sake of others.

There's nothing here to distort or soften. The film even makes room for a detail easy to miss: Jesus warns His disciples that the world's rejection of Him means they'll face rejection too — a sober, biblical word about what it costs to carry His name.

At its center is the truth Jesus keeps repeating in parables His own disciples don't yet understand: that death must come before new life can emerge. Scripture says it plainer than any parable: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24).

This is a rare thing: a film with real craft — strong performances, beautiful cinematography, a script that trusts the Gospels — that's also entirely safe and enriching for every member of your family. Our verdict stands: worth the trip. Gather everyone, watch it together, and let the conversation afterward do the rest.