You know the way Dracula likes to deliver a dramatic speech, then turns into a bat, and flies away? It turns out that the angel Gabriel does something similar, only he turns into a blue scarf, the same kind of snazzy number you might get in Monsoon as a birthday present for your mum. Whoosh! Away he goes. Unfortunately, Gabriel-as-knitwear is about as entertaining as it gets in this fairly straightforward biblical adaptation of the early years of Mary, mother of Christ.
Actually that’s not quite fair. Anthony Hopkins as Herod understands the assignment, bellowing lines such as “KNEEEEEEEL!” with requisite gusto. We’ve seen him serve more fully flavoured ham before, however, in lavish tosh like The Silence of the Lambs sequels Hannibal and Red Dragon; this is more ham-lite, the sort of villainy Hopkins can deliver in his sleep. Not that it’s not pleasurable to watch, but his Herod could have used at least twice as much screen time as he gets.
