You may think that I’m going to go off on the upcoming To Save a Life movie as one of those Christian movies whose budget, cinematography standards, plot and acting have been, well, left behind. But I’m not. Whatever giants the makers of this movie may have beem facing this movie is totally fireproof when it comes to the cheese factor. Put simply, it’s good.
I really enjoyed it and would STRONGLY encourage you to go to it and take your teenagers with you. It was beautifully filmed, had strong acting and a pretty good plot. The movie touches on almost every struggle a teenager can face (cutting, suicide, school shootings, broken family, depression, etc.) Put simply it is very relevant for a postmodern generation of confused and abused teenagers.
As a matter of fact this excellent movie may have tried to tackle too many issues. Perhaps the makers should have taken a rifle verses shotgun approach. One powerful “issue bullet” may have hit the target more effectively than ten “issue pellets”. But, on the other hand, a shotgun makes a pretty good impact too.
Probably the only real criticism I have of this movie is that the makers of To Save a Life had a tremendous opportunity to give the gospel but they didn’t take it. I talked to the writer about this (a GREAT guy and a youth leader, so I love him by default) and he told me that he didn’t want to make an “altar call type of movie“, but one that shows the impact of the gospel to change a life.
For more, read here.