I thought Director David Evans first foray into directing was well done. While he necessarily had to tip toe around some of the thematic elements in order to maintain an acceptable rating for his target audience, he avoided some of the pitfalls of other Christian movies that tended to sanitize the movie by showing the characters offer up a simple prayer of salvation,or a need to God and magically life came together for them. David Evans, allows us to wittiness the inner turmoil of the characters, and their struggles to make sense of the issues they face.-Mack struggling with the loss of His son, and the turmoil and degradation of his family that is the result of his own unresolved anger which has turned to bitterness and borders on hatred for all of humanity. Simultaneously we see Pastor Sam as he struggles with loving his neighbor(Mac) whom is a racist. These are complex issues that certainly could have been explored more in depth with a larger budget, professional actors, and an R rating, but given the circumstances, and purpose of this film, I think the movie does an excellent job of allowing the audience to make the connections to the deeper issues at play. I wish all Christian based movies had the courage to tackle such while doing an equally good job of resisting the urge to put God in a box and relegate him to a fairy God mother sitting around waiting for His followers to offer up a prayer request that he can snap His fingers and answer in a 2 hour time frame. I give it 8 stars, but rate it 10 above to off set the lack of grace that many professional critics will use when rating this film.
Review of The Grace Card
