I may be in the minority with regards to this film's qualities, but I'll risk the ridicule and state my negatives ...along with some positives.
Most will note, however, that I DID give the film a positive rating. The ONLY reason I did was because the message was one I felt needed to be told in response to the religious right's ridiculous claims surrounding God, family, and Jesus' message.
Since I'm mostly an optimist, I'll start with the upside. Again, the message is great. This film's been called "The perfect antidote to THE PASSION OF THE Christ," and I couldn't agree more. It's just unfortunate that more positive qualities didn't shine through to help the message. But I'm getting negative. Back to the positives...
The message of God/Jesus releasing a family from original sin was refreshing and something I'd never dreamt of seeing on film. I thought the scenes where the Franklin family (minus their teen daughter) meet up with Jesus on an astral plain was filmed really well. Having Jesus be black was also a wonderful punch to the gut to the religious right who always view Jesus as some Caucasian with a flowing robe and beard. Watching Jesus chop down the crucifix was probably one of the more dark funny moments in the film for me. I've always complained that if Jesus ever came back to Earth, he'd be mighty peeved to learn what symbol we chose to remember him by.
It was also great to see friend and neighbor Peggy Lester (Mari C. Blackwell) caught in a moral dilemma when she's forced to choose between her Christian friends and her best friend (Teresa Willis). The pressure exerted by her right wing fanatical friends showed just how far removed some extremists are from Jesus' true message: forgiveness and forbearance.
Where the film sputtered (and nearly died!) was its script, including — unfortunately — the dialogue. Much of it was stilted and forced. A much more subtle approach to the dialogue would've come off as natural, but instead it just sounded lame. Too bad.
The lighting, sets, and other filming qualities were obviously low-budget. When I say "obvious" it really means "very bad." Again, unfortunate considering the powerful message this film was trying to get across.
I feel bad not being able to give this film a higher rating, mainly because I know that the right wing bizzarros out there are helping fund and promote things like The Passion of the Christ. And they'll certainly be trying to sweep this type of film under the rug.
Say? Was that Governor Sanford I just saw running and screaming out of the theater?
