Also saw The Case for Christ… the true story of a Chicago Tribune writer who went out to disprove the Crucifixion story and wound up a believer (who also wrote the book the flick is based on). This is a faith-based movie by the production house Pure Flix which is behind such films as God’s Not Dead and War Room. This is by far their best, most professionally filmed movie… though it’s still a special kind of propaganda.
The basic premise is that the writer and his wife are atheists but when a nurse saves their daughter’s life and credits Jesus, the wife starts to believe. This causes a rift in their marriage so the writer decides to investigate the Crucifixion in order to discredit all of Christianity (because scholars – pro and con – haven’t spent their entire careers doing this already). Since this is a faith-based movie and since the actual subject of this movie played himself in God’s Not Dead 2, it’s no surprise the writer turns the corner and winds up believing.
Like I said, this movie is basically propaganda – it sets forth arguments that those fully bought-in will nod their heads to and others will find unconvincing. But these arguments are oddly only a small portion of what’s ultimately a very rambling, shaggy two hour movie. The film is even more interested in telling the dramatic story of a marriage in crisis. It also is telling the story of the writer investigating the shooting of a police officer by a gang member. And its telling the story of the rift between the writer and his parents. It’s all over the place.
But the funny thing is, the marriage drama and the cop story are actually very well done and interesting. It’s almost like the whole proving-Christianity-is-a-hoax thing is the side-story and it kind of shows. His investigation is a series of one-sided debates that wrap-up in an unconvincing montage… but the marriage drama is three dimensional and the cop drama a pretty itnriguing mystery.
So not sure what this movie really is, but it’s pretty good. As far as a faith-based movie goes, you could poke holes in some of the logical fallacies but at least the movie isn’t hateful, judgmental, or smug and it doesn’t have a persecution complex (things many faith-based movies are, to their detriment since they are only preaching to the choir).
From a production standpoint, the movie is very professional (something previous movies may have been lax on). The movies looks really good visually and it nails the late 70s / early 80s era. The actors are all doing very convincing, three dimensional performances.
Overall, a pretty good film (even if it kind of feels like a two hour commercial for the guy’s book).
Score: 80