Michael's Movie Grade: B+
Review: With its extremely overt Christian themes and patriotism, there was no doubt this movie was not going to be a critical darling. However I personally felt it was an excellent movie in its own right. Of course the fact that I am a Christian doesn't hurt this at all.
What really makes this movie work is the main character. We can argue with her actions at times, but this is what makes her so real. She doesn't make her mistakes from any form of malice, but rather because she doesn't know what to do. The truth is in her situation, many of us would have no idea what we are supposed to do. Of course being a Christian film, what she is supposed to do is trust God. However as every Christian knows there are times when we have trouble trusting God, because in our own humanness we can't see him working in our lives and think he has abandoned us. This is heightened by a powerful and moving performance by actress Lindsay Pulsipher. Her performance is so real and human, that we can not help but feel the full emotion of her character. The whole cast is fantastic in fact. All of them put there full effort into their roles and it shows. Despite the lower budget the film looks quite good, and uses the visual art form of film to its advantage. I love one scene in which our main character's love interest looks at a picture of her dead husband and while looking at it sees his date's reflection in the picture. The fact that in this scene we are introduced to her this way shows how much she is still letting herself be defined by this with no one having to say a word. This scene is very powerful and quite impressive.
This isn't a perfect movie. Sometimes there is forced dialogue that even the great cast can't make work and the story is predictable and familiar. Still the movie overcomes these obstacles and is a good film in spite of them.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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