Movie Review: Soul on Fire

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A well-made, if flawed biopic. 

This movie tells the true story of John O'Leary, who has a child accidently set his house on fire and burned himself beyond what anyone would think that he could come back from. He survives and after making it through a struggle with self-doubt, becomes a powerful Christian speaker. 

Though visually this film may resemble a made for TV movie, it is obviously of a high caliber than what is seen on Hallmark or Lifetime. The acting is truly excellent here with not a weak link in the cast. Of course, William H. Macy is a standout as the real-life baseball announcer, who ends up becoming one of the main character's best friends. However, Joel Courtney and James McCracken also wonderful as the main character as an adult and kid. DeVon Franklin steals various scenes in a supporting role as a nurse.  Stephanie Szostak and John Corbett are excellent as the parents and Masey McLain is quite good as the love interest. I came into this film expecting the corny dialogue that is heard in too many Christian movies, but the dialogue was actually quite strong here with most characters talking how people would actually talk in these difficult situations. The writing also does its job as it makes you feel inspired by the story of this character's life. As you should with a feel-good movie, you feel better leaving the theater than you did entering it. 

The movie's main flaw though is that there is nothing cinematic about it. As mentioned before this looks like a made for TV movie rather than something that you would actually see on screen. Yet this is not the only aspect I am referring to when I call this uncinematic. The film simply doesn't follow one of the most important rules in movie making, show don't tell. I understand that the filmmakers' have to condense a person's life to less than two hours. However, this does not excuse brushing aside important plot points with brief bits of dialogue. After one disastrous attempt at talking to a group of girl scouts, we next see our main character having become a mostly successful public speaker. What changed between those time periods is never shown to us but rather the main character mentions it briefly during a conversation. For a movie about public speaking, this major change in the character's life should have been something that we were shown happening. The same thing happens with the character's transition from a party animal to someone who lives for God. Again, we are told about this change but don't see it happen in front of us. Even though this still a good movie, this is a truly major flaw. 

Despite this major flaw though this is a very effective film. It is a feel-good movie that truly makes you feel good.