THE JOURNEY

Movie tip: Wanted

Right now the movie 'Wanted' is playing in theatres across Europe. I just watched it with Joshua and Judah and it is a fantastic flick!

Although it contains a serious amount of  violence (let the sensitive reader beware) it has a great storyline and touches on a number of terrific themes; themes that remind me of the gospel.

• Don't settle for the status quo.
• Discover who you are
• Embrace the hard knocks as necessary training.
• Your father was never more than a camera-click away.
• "You want me to run?"
  "No, I want you to live! You can have a different life; the life your father wanted you to live."
• "To your father, protecting you was worth giving up his life."
  "Protecting me? He was trying to kill me!"
  "No, he wasn't trying to kill you. He was trying to rescue you."
• "This not me me. This is not me fulfilling my destiny. This is not me following in my father's footsteps. This is definitely not me saving the world. This is not me."

Anyway, go see that movie. Totally worth it. Of course the always lovely Angelina Jolie and always terrific Morgan Freeman are wonderful to watch. So are the amazing special effects. Let me know what you think!

Movie review: The Golden Compass

Joshua, Judah and I went to see 'The Golden Compass" today. This movie, starring Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, and Sam Elliott (among others), has drawn a lot of criticism from Christians around the world, and particularly the Roman Catholic Church.

Not surprising, really. The movie is made after the trilogy His Dark Materials by author Philip Pullmann. A trilogy, you ask? Yes, a trilogy. Much like Lord of the Rings, with good and bad and war and magic and amazing creatures, amazing scenery and amazing animated creatures. But unlike Tolkien's Lord of the Ring trilogy, this trilogy sets out to reveal the evil of the church and the evil of Christianity. Pullman is very, very clear in his agenda to show the church to be nothing but an evil institution, and the Christian faith nothing but a farce.

And so The Golden Compass is a about the evil the Magisterium (the institutional church) seeks to do the minds of little innocent children: they seek to seperate them from their personalities. In the magical world where this story takes place, these personalities reside outside a person, in the shape of an animal, and they are called Deamons. The whole purpose of the story, as will become clearer in the next two episiodes, is to demonstrate that mankind should leave God and the church behind. In the story, God is an old and tired lying angel, who ends up dying.

I am troubled by this move. I don't know if it was wise to see this movie with my kids. Why do it? My kids are going to see this movie, if not with me, than somewhere else. I'd rather have the conversation about the movie with them!

To be sire, I don't believe in the God that Pullman creates in his st6ory either.And I would hate the magisterium just as much. If the role of the church is to seperate you from your personality, to control your thinking, to limit your freedom and to hang on to its power, than I would hate it to...

And there is the rub. Pullman seems to fight a church that seeks to control and dominate and harm and destroy. I am deeply, deeply sorry to have to say that he has historic cause for that. But the God I believe him wants nothing of the kind. He comes, as a little baby, into a dark world and teaches man to forgive, serve, embrace, release, give and redeem. He encourages people to think, and seeks to set them free. How unfortunate that Pullman - and so many with him - have come to see the church as the exact opposite. There's a conversation I'd like to have with my boys.

Which leaves the deamons. In the spiritual world in which we live I am afraid demons are nothing to be toyed with. But in the make-believe world of Pullman they are an elegant way of showing the true character of a person. Maybe that's another interesting conversation to have with them: what animal best resembles the person you want to be.

Verdict: go see that movie -- but if you see it with your kids, have (a talk) or two about it!

Some reviews said the movie felt rushed. But I liked it a lot. Great scenery, great graphics. The Polar bear is amazing. The acting is OK. Nicole Kidman needed an extra layer of make-up, I thought. I like Sam Elliott in anything he does (RoadHouse!)

Movie review: Atonement

I have decided to add a new section to our blog. It's called "Movie Reviews." Sophie and I enjoy watching movies, and we often talk about movies with our friends. Movies say a lot about the culture in which we live, and are probably the most dominant form of art in our day. Movies are to culture today, what paintings were to the world of the 16th and 17th century.

Sophie and I went to see "Atonement" today, starring Keira Knightly, James McAvoy, and Vanessa Redgrave. The movie really falls into two neat parts. In the first part we see a young girl who watches the world from her window, arrives at her own conclusions and then uses those conclusions to interpret a hideous act. The wrong man is sent to prison, and the love between him and her sister (Keira Knightly) suffers a terrible blow. The second part of the movie is what the title refers to: how can a young girl, now a young woman, atone for what she did?

Of course, the title 'Atonement'  promises a story about right and wrong, brokenness, desperation and also about penance, forgiveness, reckoning and restoration. In a world like ours, where there is so much wrong, do we not want there to be a place for atonement?

The first part of the movie is beautifully set in the period between World War I and II, in the english landscape and a statuely english mansion. Keira Knightly looks dazzling, as in any movie (but, also as in any movie - and for reasons that elude me - she always seems angry). The second part of the movie is set in World War II. And though you never see any fighting, the movie portrays the horrors of war well.

In terms of cinematography, Atonement is very good. Beautifully filmed, well acted, dramatic silences; it keeps the viewer engaged (albeit it at times uncomfortably so). And it makes the viewer work too: the timeline is confusing; you sit there much of the time trying to figure out where in the sequence of events this scene takes place. I thought that was interesting.

And then there is the ending. Well, I won't give anything away, but it's startling. Atonement turns out to be yet another movie that intends to question reality, truth, perception and guilt. It does this quite well, but it fails to present a vision, an answer, a promise. With a title like 'atonement' I had wanted something more. 

Recommendation: 3 out of 5.