War Room
War
Room
In Theaters: Aug 28, 2015 Limited
Rateing: PG for mature themes
Genre: Drama
Directed By: Alex Kendrick
Written By: Alex Kendrick, Stephen
Kendrick
Running time: 120 minutes
Studio: Provident Films
Distributor:
TriStar Pictures
Good (★★☆☆)
Film Reviewed by Kam Williams
In 2011, Pastor Alex Kendrick produced, directed, wrote and starred in
Courageous, a very compelling, action-oriented, faith-based drama. With
War
Room, he’s opted to play only a supporting role in the flick, thereby
freeing himself to focus more on his duties behind the camera.
The
film revolves around protagonists Elizabeth (Priscilla Shirer) and Tony
Jordan (T.C. Stallings), a couple we meet already in the midst of a
relationship crisis. Most of their marital woes are of the husband’s making,
as he is a workaholic who’s emotionally and physically unavailable to his
wife and their young daughter, Danielle (Alena Pitts).
And that’s
just the tip of the iceberg, since terribly-flawed Tony proceeds to put both
his job and marriage in jeopardy by embezzling funds from his company and
dating a colleague when he’s away on business. Nevertheless, the lout should
thank his lucky stars that instead of leaving him, realtor Liz heeds the
advice of Miss Clara ( Karen Abercrombie), a sage, elderly client of hers.
Clara is a Christian who believes in the power of prayer.
Furthermore, she suggests that Liz ought to love and respect rather than try
to fix her philandering hubby. Together, they come up with a “battle plan”
to resurrect the relationship, which helps explain the picture’s
militaristic-sounding title.
In this critic’s opinion, War Room is a
movie that’s way too heavy-handed in its treatment of the material to find
much of a mainstream following. That’s too bad, since the modern morality
play could’ve just as effectively delivered its valuable message without
wearing religion on its sleeve.
Consequently, its appeal is apt to
be pretty much limited to Evangelicals with an appetite for incessant
sermonizing. This represents an unfortunate step backwards for Pastor
Kendrick who had previously demonstrated an uncanny ability to serve up
Jesus fare ever so subtly.
A prayer-ordained, Prodigal husband
parable preaching primarily to the choir!