PROS
+ Great camera, beautiful scenery.
+ Great actors.
+ Mostly great music.
+ Reconciliation over divorce.
+ Strong display against the evil act of adultery, showing many of its ugly consequences.
CONS
- Inadequate mini skirt of Rose in minute 13. This is not a good example in a 'Christian' movie. Her beauty could have been shown in a thousand other ways.
- In minute 14, we see a supposed Christian (Jed) singing to a Christian (Rose) in public, while badly offending the ex-partner of Rose who is listening in the crowd. Badmouthing on stage at a festival? Seriously in a Christian movie??? Where has the American church gone?
- In minute 19, we see what some would call a white lie - Rose is lying that she did not listen to Jed's conversation with her father.
- Coming to the main drama and main issues of the movie:
Jed sinned for months, by breaking the Moral Law, the 10 Commandments. He did so when Satan tricked him, but his defense fell already long before on stage. He then committed adultery for several months and consumes drugs, which means he would have clearly shipwrecked his faith and his salvation (while not taking any responsibility). Thinking about the biblical example to follow in such a case, yeah, it would be the same King David as alluded to in the movie.
But tragically we see no single action for biblical restoration, except that he physically restored the little chapel he had previously destroyed, after he stated in minute 82 that "I did this and I'm glad I did this." . This arrogance and pride later vanish, but other than a sung apology to his wife on yet another festival, there is nothing.
Not a single prayer or lament to THEOS over his grievous sin. No biblical repentance, no search for a restoration of his faith. And then suddenly, while in the late afternoon still destined to follow in his old paths and to reject his family a third time, his wife takes him back after a spontaneously canceled career and an emotional song in the evening.
This might work for pagans, but it does not work in the Christian church. This whole story, as beautiful as it is in its production, is utterly un-Christian and is in fact a very dangerous example of how not to handle such a situation.
It gets worse when seeing the involvement of City on the Hill productions, which had collaborated since a long time with Kyle Idleman on many of his earlier productions. Here we have a pastor directly involved in the movie (Executive Producer!) and even appearing in it, but he was not even able to teach the director and writers which elements for biblical restoration ought to be included??
This movie could have been great, but if the Bible is treated as a minion for the poetic element of this movie, and is not consulted for anything else, then this movie fails as it tragically has done so.
