There's a decent movie buried under the mess that is Paul, Apostle of Christ. There might even be two decent movies here. The trouble is, first-time director Andrew Hyatt and the filmmakers at Affirm Films can't decide which of these movies to make, and trying to cram all of them and then some extra stuff into less than two hours just doesn't work.

There are hints of an interesting character study of the author of more than half of the New Testament. Luke (Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Passion of the Christ, so I guess this is a step down) finds Paul (James Faulkner) in a deep, dark...