Because people really are that clueless.

I will have to dig it out and put it in the player this weekend.

By the way, your line “When, on his annual visit, he tells the wealthy congregation of the sponsoring mega-church to either come down and find a place to actually serve or “keep your damn money,” it’s an electric moment because of its truth.” really hit home. I was actually part of a church where this happened. Our “inner city” supported church actually did tell us after a year to keep our money. I think where they told us to put it was even a bit more scatological.

Definitely a finalist for “Understatement of the Year” award.

I’ll agree that, in general, the ending could have been stronger, but for a Christian movie, the ending was akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger circa 1971.

But, I’m shocked — shocked, I tell you — that you don’t read my blog faithfully. (j/k) I plugged this movie almost 2 years ago. I was fortunate enough to be in one of the “limited release” cities and got to see this on the big screen.

While I think I was in the minority, I loved the ending. The movie was more about the relationship between the pastors and their relationships than the church politics, and I was rather impressed that they ended it without a resolution on the church issue.

The megachurch depictions were disturbingly accurate, though. Anyone in a suburban church with a mission in the “inner-city” (and mine is one of them) needs to see this. I always knew Steve Taylor would be the one to make a good film that bucked the trends.

Steve Taylor got it exactly right many times, and Michael W. Smith turned out to be a much better actor than I expected. (It was mentioned on the special features that he’d been taking acting classes. I wish every musician who tried to take a stab at acting would do likewise instead of just relying on their star power to get themselves roles.)

Thanks for the great review!

Excellent Review, Michael. I agree that this is one of the best explicitly “Christian” films that I’ve seen. The only place I might disagree is in your assessment of the ending needing to be stronger. While most Christian movies (and most general market movies, for that matter) tend to wrap up the ending nice and neat, all problems solved or on their way to being solved, I appreciate a film that can leave the ending ambiguous. No, the problems aren’t solved, but I’m not sure if the characters know what else to do.

I’m really glad to see a film that can show real life without giving any easy answers to the problems faced. Sometimes people we pray for and work with stay lost. Sometimes Christians are jerks.

By the way – I’ve heard Taylor’s next project is a fictionalized version of “Blue Like Jazz.”