God Bless the Broken Road

I loved some things about the movie and I also had some concerns.

Amber being the Lead character in the movie, one would expect that the establishing shot captures her or her abode; but that was not the case.

While I wished the news about Darren Hill was delivered in a different setting than the church, I also wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention the Close-up shot of the tambourine as it landed on the floor, sending waves of the impact of the message being delivered to Amber. Great shot I must say.

Wished an older lady was cast as Darren's mum as Patti could easily pass off as his wife rather than his mother.

The gun battle between Darren's platoon and the Taliban was quite chaotic and even the expression on Darren and Nelson's face as they lay on the ground didn't suit the scenario.

Had concerns about Amber's costumes too. Was expecting a different outfit other than her regular outfit on her date with Cody, but loved the beautiful dress she wore at the climax to the church.

Favorite Lines: "Sometimes God's plan for our lives may be different than we hoped."

Even though I wished there was more church scenes than was the case, it wasn't a terrible watch.

By and large good acting and script, although an army widow finding herself without any military income might seem a bit unreal. Churchy, but not too preachy, it explores starting out on the false premise that God is supposed to be micromanaging the whole show-if thing go wrong is it ineptitude by a caring manager, unconcern by an uncaring manager, punishment by an angry one, etc? On the other hand, if he is semi-interventionalist (philosophically sound), then the swings and roundabouts of life might often be merely cause & effect within nature, helped or hindered by our attitudes to life.

Philosophically a few might find the polytheism of some of the prayer & singing (the 'our-type-of-god' syndrome) a bit irksome. A largely satisfying film, however, with elements of self-sacrifice for others, and of self-insularity as a protective shielding (to love is to be vulnerable). And how hard a child can be to a parent who thinks they mean well, but don't realise they are drowning and dragging down their child when human affection has become demonic! The film has a feel good factor and a think through factor, but numerous holes.

First the writer ignores the benefits available to widows of kia soldiers in order to make up the hackneyed cliche of poor widow about to lose her home to heartless banker. What did she do with the 100k death benefit and her monthly dic payment? Not supposed to think about these things. Problem with too many Christian movies, you have to leave your brsin at the door. The real story, the widow loses her faith and we watch as her daughter and friends try to get her to re-engage with her faith. Then we have to suffer through a competing Tom Cruze type coming of age NASCAR story. Please.

I enjoyed this movie because it reminds us all that life is not always as we want it to be so we must always continue to have faith and continue to pray for guidance.

While not "the best movie I've ever seen". It was a sweet story about faith & family. Bring your tissues!