The following are films that have been reviewed by members of our Faith Issues in Films covenant group. If you'd like to join that small group, or one of the many other small groups available through our small group ministries, please click here.
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The Soloist (2009) - reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
The film “The Soloist” (2009) is based on a true story by Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey, Jr.), a Los Angeles Times columnist, about Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), whom he meets on Los Angeles’s skid row. Under a freeway overpass, Nathaniel is playing a two-stringed violin. Steve, after hearing him play classical music, becomes interested in his background and discovers that Nathaniel had been a gifted cello student at the Julliard School of Music, but then suffered a schizophrenic break. Now Nathaniel needs to play music to keep the voices in his head at bay. Steve’s involvement with Nathaniel expands from providing him with music instruments, to introducing him to a professional cellist, to trying to convince him to move off the street to a shelter at LAMP (Los Angeles Men’s Project). Steve slowly gains Nathaniel’s confidence and friendship, and is even able to take him to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in rehearsal. After a physical attack by Nathaniel, Steve is forced to reevaluate the motives for his involvement and to accept that Nathaniel cannot be changed, and that the best help for him is Steve’s friendship.
Faith issues in the film involve the power of friendship, hope, faith, second chance, forgiveness, questions of charity’s limits, and the healing power of music. The film was directed by Joe Wright, with the condition of hiring people from skid row as extras.
Rated PG-13, 116 min.
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Millions (2004) - reviewed by Linda Busek
Millions is a heartfelt, emotionally delicate movie about life and death and the parts in between. The UK is about to switch its currency from Pounds to Euros, giving a gang of criminals the chance to rob a poorly-secured train loaded with soon-to-be-obsolete currency on its way to destruction. But, during the robbery, one of the bags falls literally from the sky onto Damian's playhouse. Alex Etel, in a charming performance, plays 8-year-old Damian, given to talking to saints. The younger of two brothers who receive this unexpected fortune, Damian starts seeing what the world and the people around him are made of. He sees this as his opportunity to do something saintly—he wants to give the money to the poor. But his selfish brother Anthony wants to use the money to become the cool kid at school. Meanwhile, a shadowy character is lurking about, trying to get the loot back. Millions is a wonderful family film: a moral parable rather than a morality tale; a film that combines high ideals and hard realities; a story of hope and faith in something more than Santa Claus. With Christmas just around the corner, Damian will learn the hard way that doing the right thing can be more complicated than it seems. The ending is simple and sweetly affecting, with the moral of the tale ("money just makes everything worse") spelled out. Directed by Danny Boyle. Running Time: 97 min. Rated PG.
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I've Loved You So Long (2008) -
Juliette’s emotional healing is supported by Lea’s understanding colleague Michael (Laurent Grevill) to whom Juliette is able to tell about her self-imposed silence in prison. The themes of death and new life, interwoven into the film through minor characters, reflect Juliette’s inner struggle and slow healing. References to works of art and literature, and the film’s music and color tonalities also mirror this struggle. The measured pace of the film allows the viewer to fully appreciate Scott Thomas’ exceptional performance as portrayed through her facial expressions. The faith themes in the film involve acceptance, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, grace, and love.Rated PG-13, not suitable for children. 117 minutes; in French with English subtitles. Received several nominations and awards for Best Foreign Film and for Best Actress.
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War Dance (2007) - reviewed by Jim Gibbs
Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Fine, War Dance is a documentary set in contemporary Northern Uganda where, in a brutal civil war, a rebel force called The Lord's Resistance Army abducts boys and girls and forces them both to witness the killing of their parents and to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves. The film follows the lives of three of these children, Rose, Dominic, and Nancy, who live in a refugee camp. They recount and relive their harrowing stories, but find redemption through music–song and dance–as they compete with children from all over the country in a National Music Competition in Kampala, the capital. We see the children in school, in rehearsal, and in the final competition and hear the beautiful African music they make.
While the film does not show the atrocities the children experienced, their recounting of them is harrowing. It is rated PG-13 for graphic descriptions and is not suitable for children or even younger teens. Faith issues include religion used as rationale for war and atrocities and the power of redemption. The film won several film festival awards for its cinematography and as best documentary feature.
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An Unfinished Life (2005)– reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
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Lantana (2001) – reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
The Australian film Lantana, directed by Ray Lawrence and set in Australia with mainly an Australian cast, deals with the universal themes of love and trust in personal relationships. The film is presented in a mosaic-like manner, interweaving the lives of four couples caught in disconnected communications and forming a tangled mesh like the lantana plant’s hidden mesh. The couples come from different walks of life and are drawn together by the disappearance of a woman therapist (Barbara Hershey). The detective involved in the case (Anthony LaPaglia) not only has to solve the mystery but also confront his own feelings. The film is “murder mystery, thriller, and drama;” the seemingly disconnected fragments of the first half of the film yield, as it progresses, depth and insight into the characters dealing with the importance of love and trust in marriage and possible ramifications of their absence. The film received 7 Australian Film Institute awards.
120 minutes, sexual scenes and strong language, rated R.
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The Painted Veil (2006) – reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
Rated PG-13, 125 min. 122 minutes. Rated PG-13 for strong thematic material, including the rape of child, violence, and brief strong language. Won Golden Globe Awards in 2008 for best foreign language film and for best original score.
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The Kite Runner (2007) – reviewed by Jim Gibbs
Based on the widely acclaimed novel of the same title, The Kite Runner is the story of Amir, an Afghan-American author from Fremont, California.. Set mainly in Afghanistan, it opens with a flashback to Amir's boyhood in Kabul in 1978, as he and his friend and family servant, Hassan, fly kites in a tournament with other boys. In a fearful moment, when a neighborhood bully attacks Hassan, Amir betrays him. Shortly afterwards, the Soviets invade and Amir and his father, Baba, flee into exile in California.. A complicated and riveting plot takes the adult Amir back to contemporary Afghanistan, where Hassan's son is in peril and the neighborhood bully is now a Taliban tyrant. Amir struggles to overcome his burden of shame and redeem himself. Much of the film soundtrack is in an Afghan dialect, with English sub-titles, and it provides a rich, authentic feel of Afghan culture. Geopolitics remain in the background, as the focus is on compelling characters and a universal tale of struggle and triumph over human frailty. Slow in spots, but with much excellent acting and very good cinematography.
Directed by Marc Forster with an Afghan cast.
Dead Poets Society (1989) – reviewed by Jim Gibbs
At an all-male Eastern prep school, English teacher John Keating inspires his students to a love of poetry and calls them to "seize the day." In trying to do so, they butt against the school's stifling patriarchal tradition and, in one critical instance, a rigid, unyielding father. Keating can be seen as Christ like and the plot has some parallels to gospel accounts of Jesus.
Themes include: transformation, call, the impact of social class and traditional notions of masculinity, and father/son relationships. Directed by Peter Weir. Starring Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke. Rating: PG. Touchstone Pictures.
Motifs common to this film and to Beautiful Dreamer are: Walt Whitman, and institutional change.
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Vera Drake (2004) – reviewed by Jim Gibbs
Set in 1950 England, Vera Drake is the tale of a kindly, bustling woman, who takes care of her husband and children, her aged mother, and a few others as well. In addition, she works as a domestic and "helps out" young women by providing them with abortions. The film, starring Imelda Staunton, tellingly reflects the post-WW II British class system and the tension between legal right and wrong and moral right and wrong. Directed by Mike Leigh.
125 minutes. Rated R for depiction of strong thematic material. Rated: R for violence, nudity, sexual content, language, and some drug use. Length: 2 hrs, 23 min.
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Babel (2006) – reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu bases his film Babel on Genesis 11:9-11, where God confused the people’s languages and scattered them all over the earth, as punishment for their hubris. The film takes place on three continents, deals with four cultures, and, even though in English, incorporates seven languages including sign language. The story line itself intermixes short scenes dealing with (1) an American couple, Robert (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett), traveling in Morocco; (2) two young Moroccan goatherds; (3) a Mexican nanny Amelia (Adrianna Barraza), who cares for Robert and Susan’s two young children in San Diego, and (4) a deaf-mute Japanese teenager named Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), who lives in Tokyo. One of the goatherds, playing with his father’s new rifle, critically injures Susan, who is traveling on a tourist bus. The shooting is perceived as a terrorist act by local and American authorities. The Moroccan driver takes the bus with the bleeding Susan to his native village. In the meantime, Amelia takes the couple’s children from San Diego to Mexico to her son’s wedding. On the way back, she inadvertently endangers them in the desert. In Tokyo, Chieko, feeling isolated and desperate, seeks attention through inappropriate behavior.
Faith issues in the film deal with the inter-connectedness of people, the commonality of their suffering, and their miscommunications and cultural misunderstandings, as well as hope and the kindness of strangers. In the film, hubris actually helps the materially wealthy individuals, whereas the disadvantaged have to suffer without help. Adrianna Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi were nominated for Academy Awards.
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Hold Your Breath – reviewed by Greg Plant
What would you do if faced with cancer and the doctor spoke no English? Could you trust him if you didn't understand him?
That situation faced Mohammed Kochi, an Afghan refugee living in Fremont, and it is captured in "Hold Your Breath" (the phrase used by CATscan machines). Kochi, who speaks no English, meets with his American doctor, who tries to urge Kochi to take chemotherapy. But does Kochi understand, through a family friend as interpreter, his choices? The film follows the wrenching crisis, interspersed with scenes from Kochi's youth and the Afghani war, and how Kochi and his family respond to it.
This documentary is directed by Maren Grainger-Monsen, an M.D. working with the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, and it does raise many questions about the clash of cultures in medical decision-making. It is used by medical schools and other organizations dealing with these issues.
Unrated, 58 min.
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Defending Your Life (1991) –
reviewed by Greg Plant and Jim Gibbs
Albert Brooks is a very funny man, yet in “Defending Your Life” he is also thoughtful. Brooks plays a man who dies and literally has to defend his life’s behavior in a sort of purgatory “Judgment City.”
This approach to death seems to echo the idea of Tibetan Buddhist belief in “bardo” as a transitional stage after death and before reincarnation.
Brooks’ movie is filled with jokes and pokes fun at American icons, such as overeating, lawyers, and television, including a “Past Lives Pavilion” hosted by who else? -- Shirley MacLaine. There Brooks watches his past self running from a lion, and, asked who he is, he quips, “Dinner."
“Defending” also plays fun with our ideas of heaven. Here you can eat endlessly and the food is the best ever eaten, yet this is not heaven. And hell? Brooks’ defense “lawyer” says “there is no hell, but I hear Los Angeles is getting close.”
The movie does probe thoughtfully into why humans can fail to reach full potential. To Brooks it is “fear,” as he amply demonstrates in his trial. How he faces and overcomes this makes for a brave and inspiring ending, in a surprisingly-romantic way, with Meryl Streep lending a sweet hand.
Even though the film is classed as a comedy, several members of our group disliked its lighthearted, satiric style and its treatment of the faith issue of life after death. This was especially true of those who had suffered the loss of someone close to them.
Year: 1991; Director: Brooks; Time: 112 minutes;Rating:PG.
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Away from Her (2006)– reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
Canadian director Sara Polley’s film “Away from Her” is based on Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came over the Mountain” (1999). Grant (Gordon Pinset), a retired professor, and his wife Fiona (Julie Christie) have to face Fiona’s Alzheimer’s disease. As Fiona gradually succumbs to the disease, she decides to enter a nursing facility. Fiona develops a bond with a mute stroke patient Aubrey (Michael Murphy), who has been placed there by his wife Marion (Olympia Dukakis) during her vacation. Fiona pushes Grant away and prefers Aubrey who “does not confuse” her in his muteness. Grant persists in visiting Fiona, and he wonders if she is playing a charade because of his past infidelity with a student. He seeks out Marion to obtain her view as a caretaker. Fiona’s condition takes a turn for the worse as Marion brings Aubrey back to their home. In some of her lucid moments Fiona, though, is able to express her appreciation for Grant’s steadfast love. Grant, in turn, develops a capacity for selfless love and helps to return Aubrey to the facility so that Fiona can be with him. This act can be seen as Grant’s moment of grace and redemption.
Rated PG-13. Runtime 1hr. 50 min.
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The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam (2005) -
reviewed by Vija Lusebrink
Mashayekh’s The Keeper:The Legend of Omar Khayyam (2005) is partially based on the life story of the 11th century Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. An American-Iranian boy Kamran seeks out Khayyam’s story, first from his dying older brother who is the keeper, then from an English heiress (Vanessa Redgrave), who has a rare illustrated copy of Khayyam’s poems, The Rubaiyat.
Flashbacks show Khayyam as a child with his school friend Hasan and Darya, a slave girl who is sold off. Khayyam attracts the attention of the wise Imam Mowaffeck who tutors him in mathematics and astronomy. Mowaffeck helps Khayyam join the court of Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah as astronomer. In a chance meeting Khayyam and Darya express their love for each other.
Hasan becomes the leader of a fanatic terrorist group. A meeting between Khayyam and Hasan ends up in an argument about faith. Khayyam has to flee while the Crusaders vanquish the Sultan and his troops.
Kamran’s journey ends in Iran where his dying grandfather tells him the rest of the story. Faith issues in the film deal with family ties, friendship, and some aspects of the Muslim faith. The privately financed film, made to honor a part of Iranian culture, is unevenly executed and acted.
Rated PG, some violence. 1 hour 35 min.
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Doubt (2008) - reviewed by Mary Alice Thornton
Directed by John Patrick Shanley, adapted from his Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play, starring Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams & Viola Davis. Set in a Catholic elementary school in the Bronx in 1964, the film captures the culture and tensions of the Catholic Church following the Vatican II Council. School Principal Sister Aloysius (Streep) begins to have doubts about one of the parish priests, Father Flynn (Hoffman), who seems to be overly involved in the life of the only African American student in the school. Sister Aloysius plants her doubts into the mind of compassionate, much younger Sister James (Adams), and asks her to be another set of eyes and ears observing Father Flynn. Sister Aloysius also confronts the mother (Davis) of the young boy with her suspicions about Father Flynn. The mother’s unanticipated convictions shock the principal into taking matters in her own hands.
From the opening moments to its conclusion, though possible sexual misconduct is an unstated theme, uncertainty hangs in the air leaving one with more questions than answers, more doubt than certainty. Questions that arose in our discussion included articles of faith, certainty, doubt, duty, gender inequality, loyalty, pride, and self-righteousness.
Rated PG-13. May be inappropriate for children under 13.
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Kinky Boots (2005) - reviewed by Linda Busek
When Charlie Price's father dies and leaves him a bankrupt shoe factory in Northampton, England, he faces laying off dozens of loyal workers. But serendipity works its magic, and Charlie meets gay performance artist Lola in London's funky Soho District when he rescues 'her' from a thuggish band of punks. He learns that drag queens and transvestites long for sexy, cross-dressing footwear with strength and style that is not currently available.
Charlie re-engineers the factory to make "kinky boots" and saves jobs and the business in a delightful film based on a true story. Lola (acted convincingly by Chiwetel Ejiofor in drag) becomes the new footwear guru, although his transition from drag queen on the London stage to Northampton shoe designer isn't a smooth one. Neither is Charlie's, since his vision of the future didn't originally include saving a moribund shoe factory. Both Lola and Charlie struggle with their fathers' disapproval of their life choices. Simon (aka Lola) was disowned for 'not fitting in': Charlie dismissed for straying from the family business to find his fortune elsewhere.
The struggle of coming to self-identity is beautifully portrayed in a way that leads the viewer to analyze his own life choices. The film explores race, sexual orientation, anger, revenge, forgiveness, love, loyalty, sacrifice, and, ultimately, acceptance. The story culminates on the catwalk at the Milan Shoe Fair where an ensemble of Lola's back-up dancers model the factory's chic footwear in a sequence set to--what else--These Boots Were Made for Walking.
Rated PG-13, 107 minute
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The Best Years of Our Lives (1945) - reviewed by Jim Gibbs
Winner of six Oscars, including Best Picture, The Best Years of Our Lives is set just after the end of World War II. It tells the stories of three servicemen from the same small town, each from a different station in society, and their attempts to pick up the threads of their lives and adjust to civilian life. Most poignant is Homer, a sailor and real-life double amputee, who wonders if his fiancee can love a man with prostheses for hands. Fred is an air force officer who returns to his job as a soda-jerk and a wife who may have loved only his uniform. Al, an older army sergeant , has trouble adjusting to his former job as a bank officer and to his children who have matured in his absence. Complicating these intertwined lives are a host of societal problems of the postwar period such as how women, who had to take on traditional male responsibilities while their menfolk were at war, will respond to expectations that they will return to "their place."
The film is parable-like and packed with faith issues from major (e.g. the morality of war ) to the more focused (e.g. loyalty, sacrifice, courage, and the handling of issues like alcoholism). Best Years is star-studded and laden with outstanding, moving performances-- that may strike some in today's audience as idealized. Directed by William Wyler. Starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Hoagy Carmichael, and Harold Russell.
249 minutes. No rating.
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