We watched a movie last night called Faith Happens produced by Side by Side productions.
I don't want to do a full on review of the movie, but I did have some thought about it and want to share it here.
All in all, I think the movie is awesome and the true life stories of those people are gripping. Almost anybody can associate with that.
Here's some constructive comments from my side to the Producers:
1. The intro in the beginning of the movie was a little corny and you could cut that entirely. A simple white title with a black screen saying: "a true story" or maybe a striking quote about family etc. that and then cutting to the story would sufface and also make your movie a couple of seconds shorter. It's an amazing story, and the story tells itself so no need to explain anything.
2. When the choir sang it was not real and it was clearly audible that you used a studio recording. Let's face it. Lots of church choirs sings out of tune and it aint perfect, so just record them as they are, because that's what they sound like. Rather let them rehearse more. Same thing for the guy who sat at the fire and played the song in Kenya. I don't know if you did that scene in Kenya or if you did it in the US, but putting reverb on the guy's voice and guitar did not do it. It screamed fake. The voice and guitar should be in the same acoustic enviroment. and it should be the same area as the scene (If the actor could not sing or play then you could have had a double to do it and just miked him up with two shotgun mics to get a nice stereo image and some of the ambient noises like crickets and the file etc.) It also seemed like he never changed chords on the guitar, but I did not follow his hand all the time.
The story is super authentic, and little things like this break the authenticity.
3. Lastly, the whole question about: "Why bad things happen to good people" was answered by a type of a "We don't know, but God can turn anything into a good situation and all things work together" etc. That's a great message, but I feel you could have taken it further by answering the question directly. Faliure to do this, I feel, is a greatest lack of the movie.
Connected to this, is when tha Pastor cracked up when he and the old lady prayed, the right perspective was never given. That's probably how he did crack up and that's awesome to show a man of God questioning God because he has the wrong perspective. Pastors arn't super human, so that's good to see. But it was just left there. This is where you could have added a homerun in the story where maybe the little girl who spoke in the beginning could have given the following revelation where they were sitting on the hill having a picnic:
Bad things happen to good people, because of the law of sin and death. Death came because of sin when Adam and Eve sinned. They gave legal authority to satan to rule on earth. God can't just grab that authority back from satan, because He gave it to mankind and it is not His for the taking anymore. He did send Jesus to pay for us all and redeem us thourgh a perfect sacrifice, but now we need to actually accept what He did and then start walking His rulership out until all the earth is subject to Him. All creation waits for the sons of God to arise. God is not absent when bad things happen. His is bound by His character to be fair and just. He can't go back on His word and if He gave the authority away and if there is no godly man or woman standing in the gap taking that authority up, then He cannot do anything.The fact that mankind has not taken up Godly authority in all aspects of society makes it possible for the devil to steal, kill and destroy though diseases and though what people do to people.
Apart from those things, I think you guys really did an awesome job!
untill next time then!