The Case for Christ (2017)
IMDB Rating : 6.1/10 (as on 14.04.2017)
PG | 1h 52min | Drama
An investigative journalist and self-proclaimed atheist sets
out to disprove the existence of God after his wife becomes a Christian.
Director: Jon Gunn
Writers: Brian Bird (screenplay), Lee Strobel (book)
Stars: Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen, Faye Dunaway
IMDB link Here
An investigative journalist attempts to debunk
Jesus' resurrection in this adaptation of Lee Strobel's best-selling book.
Based on Lee Strobel’s
best-selling book, this religious-themed drama earns points for proselytizing
in more narratively compelling form than usual. But while the film is watchable
and features some effective performances, suffice it to say that it isn’t
exactly All the President’s Men.
Set in 1980, the story revolves
around Lee (Mike Vogel), an award-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune and
an avowed atheist, along with his wife Leslie (Erika Christensen). His life
suddenly changes when his young daughter nearly chokes to death at a
restaurant. The little girl is rescued by fellow diner Alfie (L. Scott
Caldwell), a nurse. When the grateful parents remark how lucky it was that she
was there, Alfie solemnly intones, “It’s not luck. It’s Jesus.”
The story of Lee’s
anti-Christianity quest is interwoven with another storyline involving his
investigation into the shooting of a police officer. But while the subplot
strengthens the character’s journalistic bona fides, it adds little to the
story other than providing the opportunity for Frankie Faison, playing Lee’s
hard-boiled editor, to fulminate like Perry White.
That Lee is an atheist is made
manifest by his constantly acting like a jerk, including drinking heavily,
accidentally terrifying his little girl, and whining to Leslie, "You’re
cheating on me with Jesus!" She, on the other hand, displays infinite love
and patience with her husband, proving that — as was also shown in the
faith-based film War Room — Jesus makes an ideal marriage counselor.
It isn’t hard to guess the
film’s conclusion, in which Lee learns the errors of his ways and finally
embraces faith, although as religious declarations go, “All right, God, you
win!” doesn’t exactly feel divinely inspired.
Vogel, sporting the sort of
'80s mustache favored by male porn stars, does well by his leading role, and
Christensen makes her character’s conversion dramatically credible. The
appearances by Dunaway and Forster are so brief that they seem mainly designed
to enhance VOD sales, but the old veterans nonetheless deliver like the
professionals they are.
The Case for Christ won’t
garner many new converts, especially since the evidence presented, at least in
the film, proves sketchy at best. But it will certainly please the faithful,
and proves more engrossing than most films of its ilk. The movie is also
notable for the unique MPAA explanation of its PG rating: “For thematic
elements including medical descriptions of crucifixion, and incidental
smoking.”
Read full review at Hollywood Reporter
How
'The Case for Christ' Could Create A Christian Cinematic Universe
Luke Y. Thompson
God's Not Dead 2 ended with a
tease for a part three, but that's not all it did. One of the Christian
celebrities who appeared in the film was journalist-turned-pastor-and-author
Lee Strobel, playing himself as a witness for the heroine's defense, and
plugging his Christian apologetic book The Case for Christ. Lo and behold, like
a holier Han Solo, Strobel is now the main character of his own "spin-off
prequel" of sorts, also called The Case for Christ, and distributed and
produced by Pure Flix (with Triple Horse Studios).
Focusing on then-skeptic
Strobel's life as a journalist in 1980, as he's obsessively trying to both
crack a cop-shooting case and disprove Christianity so his newly born-again
wife will see the "error" of her ways, director Jon Gunn (no relation
to James) and writer Brian Bird have taken their cues from David Fincher's
Zodiac. From the visuals (period mustaches and wigs, giant collages of evidence
and linkage, yellowish filters) to the themes (self-destructive obsession in
search of something you'll never have total, objective proof of) and even the
soundtrack (they shelled out for "Carry on My Wayward Son" rather
than all-generic contemporary Christian), this is a movie that clearly wants to
be a movie first, a sermon second. It helps, perhaps, that the sermon version
was already made a decade ago. Gunn is no Fincher, but aiming that high does
elevate his game.
That's good news, because
things get off to a really clunky start from which I initially feared they'd
never recover. Strobel (Cloverfield's Mike Vogel), his pregnant wife Leslie
(Erika Christensen, amusingly a Scientologist in real life whose church
believes Jesus is a false memory), and their young daughter Alison (Haley
Rosenwasser) are eating dinner at a restaurant when the little girl goes to get
a gumball. She promptly chokes on it, and almost dies (in part, apparently,
because nobody thinks to try the Heimlich maneuver) until a kindly nurse name
Alfie (L. Scott Caldwell) shows up and takes care of it. Leslie notes how lucky
they were that a nurse was in the restaurant, to which Alfie replies it wasn't
luck - Jesus told her to be there.
Since Hollywood often
caricatures people of faith, that's arguably fair play, but we can all do
better. In a later scene, the movie hypothesizes (by way of Faye Dunaway, of
all people), that atheist men all became so by being estranged from their
fathers.
To keep things from getting
static, the movie doesn't just follow Lee interviewing various Christians, nor
does it take that deep a dive into their arguments. The medical one that Jesus
couldn't possibly have survived the crucifixion process is compelling; the
narrative's use of the historically dubious Shroud of Turin is not. In between,
we see Leslie's journey into faith and how anguished she is that it's
separating her from her husband, who reacts by frequently getting drunk on 4-6
beers. And there's a genuine mystery at the heart of the cop-shooting, one that
has nothing to do with religion but everything to do with Lee failing to
challenge his own preconceptions.
Elevating the movie above many
others in the Pure Flix family is the quality of the casting: as in savvy
low-budget horror, The Case for Christ understands the value in having a Robert
Forster or a Faye Dunaway show up for a scene or two. And while Christensen's
real-life faith is almost as far from Christianity as atheism is, she's
consistently believable as a newly baptized lover of the Lord. Vogel is able to
let his period wig and mustache do a lot of the work - curiously, none of the
photos of the real Strobel over the end credits are similarly behaired - but
aside from a few moments of clunky dialogue he can't quite sell, the actor does an acceptable job.
Read full review at Forbes
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