A truism — actors want to play Jesus. All of them. It’s practically a complex.

Joaquin Phoenix gets to go where Willem Dafoe (the best actor to tackle the part) went before in this version of the story of Mary Magdalene, a complicated woman who followed and befriended Jesus of Nazareth.

Garth Davis directed this for IFC, not a studio known for faith-based cinema. “Mary Magdalene” is getting a TINY Easter weekend release, which is a shame, as poison peddlers Pure Flix can get their angry little odes to conservative Christian martyrdom in America into thousands of theaters at a time.

Oh. Right. Chiwetel Ejiofor is playing Peter. White conservative American Christians might have trouble having an Afro-British Londoner as an apostle.