This film attempts to tell many stories: a chaste college romance, the tale of a son and his dying mother, a young man's struggle with faith, and a specific attempt at a reconciliation of the Big Bang theory with the story of Genesis (one that tries to avoid the pitfalls of other attempts)
UNFORTUNATELY, all of these attempts fail. The romance is flat and uninteresting, with no real passion between the leads. This is best exemplified by the horrifyingly-executed kiss towards the end (of course it's there).
The dying mother plot is worthy of a lifetime movie. Of course she wakes up from her cancer-coma at the end (I kid you not, cancer-coma.)
This being an unabashedly preachy Christian film, the young man finds his faith by the end of it.
Speaking of preachy, let's move on to the pet creation philosophy that has bigger holes than the wreck of the Titanic. In addition to requiring a literal interpretation of the bible and young-earth creationism, it completely neglects the concept of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God. The theory goes on for at least twenty minutes explaining relativity, and attempting to use time dilation to explain why the six days of creation in Genesis are equivalent to the billions of years science tells us have passed since the Big Bang.
There are more problems here than I can expound on. As both a senior engineering major at a top 20 university and a devout Christian, I absolutely cannot accept this wholly ham-handed philosophy.
AS A FILM, the production is fairly varied in quality. Cinematography is largely monotonous, with 65%+ of shots being of a single individual from the waist up. There is a scene at a karaoke bar where there is NO MUSIC to accompany the singing. Many shots done in front of a green-screen have foreground lighting that doesn't match the background. The effect where a blurry-edged flashback shares the screen with a "thinking" character is used over a dozen times.
The writing leaves much to be desired. Casual dialogue has far too many rough spots, and would have benefited from better editing. The female lead is a horrifying, horrifying example of a Mary Sue.
One last gripe: there is a horrifying straw man of a liberal/elite/postmodern/New World Order character present that completely misunderstands and misrepresents the pressures of the modern world (as well as completely missing the boat on what postmodernism actually is). It just really ground my gears, and I had to specifically note my deep, deep hatred of it.
Despite this, I still found myself, on occasion, feeling like I was watching a real film with real production values. I found myself sympathizing with the characters at times. Despite having to force myself to watch this film at times, I could sometimes go for up to 10 minutes before something came up and made me want to gouge out my prefrontal cortex.
I would also like to commend the fact that this movie advocates a personal view of faith; that faith cannot be dictated to us by our peers. Well, as long as that faith is some form of Christianity. (lol, inconsistency)
VERDICT: This is a dumb, dumb movie that will make you feel good if you like easy Christianity and don't know too much about science or literature, or don't ask too many questions. Anyone who takes seriously the philosophy proposed in this movie is a fool. Despite this, it has its moments. 3/10
UNFORTUNATELY, all of these attempts fail. The romance is flat and uninteresting, with no real passion between the leads. This is best exemplified by the horrifyingly-executed kiss towards the end (of course it's there).
The dying mother plot is worthy of a lifetime movie. Of course she wakes up from her cancer-coma at the end (I kid you not, cancer-coma.)
This being an unabashedly preachy Christian film, the young man finds his faith by the end of it.
Speaking of preachy, let's move on to the pet creation philosophy that has bigger holes than the wreck of the Titanic. In addition to requiring a literal interpretation of the bible and young-earth creationism, it completely neglects the concept of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God. The theory goes on for at least twenty minutes explaining relativity, and attempting to use time dilation to explain why the six days of creation in Genesis are equivalent to the billions of years science tells us have passed since the Big Bang.
There are more problems here than I can expound on. As both a senior engineering major at a top 20 university and a devout Christian, I absolutely cannot accept this wholly ham-handed philosophy.
AS A FILM, the production is fairly varied in quality. Cinematography is largely monotonous, with 65%+ of shots being of a single individual from the waist up. There is a scene at a karaoke bar where there is NO MUSIC to accompany the singing. Many shots done in front of a green-screen have foreground lighting that doesn't match the background. The effect where a blurry-edged flashback shares the screen with a "thinking" character is used over a dozen times.
The writing leaves much to be desired. Casual dialogue has far too many rough spots, and would have benefited from better editing. The female lead is a horrifying, horrifying example of a Mary Sue.
One last gripe: there is a horrifying straw man of a liberal/elite/postmodern/New World Order character present that completely misunderstands and misrepresents the pressures of the modern world (as well as completely missing the boat on what postmodernism actually is). It just really ground my gears, and I had to specifically note my deep, deep hatred of it.
Despite this, I still found myself, on occasion, feeling like I was watching a real film with real production values. I found myself sympathizing with the characters at times. Despite having to force myself to watch this film at times, I could sometimes go for up to 10 minutes before something came up and made me want to gouge out my prefrontal cortex.
I would also like to commend the fact that this movie advocates a personal view of faith; that faith cannot be dictated to us by our peers. Well, as long as that faith is some form of Christianity. (lol, inconsistency)
VERDICT: This is a dumb, dumb movie that will make you feel good if you like easy Christianity and don't know too much about science or literature, or don't ask too many questions. Anyone who takes seriously the philosophy proposed in this movie is a fool. Despite this, it has its moments. 3/10