tjsprik

As a Christian, I am often conflicted with the movies our 'community' produces. Too often a beautiful story can be marred by a lack of quality writing, acting, and production.

So I admit to feeling tense as I sat in the theater this morning watching I Can Only Imagine, with an expectation that some cringe-worthy line or delivery would happen at any moment. Happily, this story-in-film hits the trifecta: quality writing, quality acting, and quality production.

It's not perfect. What film is?! But in a world where abuse happens all too often, here is a story of redemption, reconciliation, and hope, and it will impact anyone who sees it in a positive way. The worst of the abuse is spoke of, not acted out, making this a safe and inspiring movie choice for almost all ages. The faith of the main character is also portrayed in a subdued way--not with Bible-thumping or speeches.

See it, regardless of your belief system. And bring Kleenex.

I don't even know where to begin to warn movie lovers to avoid this time-waster. The plot is nonsensical. The rock creatures are ridiculous. The acting is good, as you would expect from Crowe and Connelly, but they can't save this really awful movie. I haven't seen a storyline this bad in a very long time.

I was hoping for some good special effects of the flood, since the geological impacts of the event are so intriguing, but even they were sub-par. Now I understand why the marketing team made the movie out to be so controversial--because it was the only possible way to generate an audience. Hopefully these actors will go on to work in the great movies for which they were previously known and this movie will disappear into the great unknown.

I didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did. Originally a friend and I went to support the film, not really sure we would like it all that much. But wow! What a great story! There is more going on than the ads portray, with many different characters and situations of all kinds. There are some clunky scenes that weren't well-edited, but overall it's a good story not too far outside the realm of reality.

The acting was better than I expected it to be based on other comments and reviews. I've concluded that most viewers are over-rating or under-rating the movie, depending on their perspective on God. As a Christian, of course my friend and I had an appreciation for the subject matter, but as movie-lovers we also enjoyed the film.