I have never written a review on IMDb before but felt compelled to after watching this film. Last night I was looking for a good independent film to watch and this flicked across the screen in my Netflix options. Never having heard of the book and not knowing a thing about what I was getting myself into, I went for it. There were early hints that I had walked myself into a "Christianity is the bestest" type film, but I didn't know for sure until halfway through when the main love interest professes to the main character something along the lines of, "I can't explain it, I just love Jesus!". I recognized this tell-tale sign of propaganda but decided to suspend judgement. I sat through the rest of the film in hopes that there'd be surprise character or plot development in the second half. Unfortunately, there wasn't. The plot is thin and predictable. I find it remarkable that others who have reviewed the film found it thought provoking. In my estimation, those who found it to be this way enjoyed the affirmation that the film provided. Can't fault anyone there: we all like a little positive reinforcement from Hollywood every now and then.For those of us who aren't sold on Christianity, the underlying theme of Christianity being the "right" belief is obvious and more than a little off-putting. In order to be truly thought provoking (to those who aren't already on board with the concept), the message shouldn't have been so obvious and cheesy. If the hope was that this movie would help put Christianity in a better light with non-Christians, the movie misses that mark too. None of the characters exhibited a need for Jesus/the church - at their core they were smart people with good consciouses, and were clearly capable of sorting themselves out without the church. I didn't see or hear any testimony as to why either required religious support to do this, in fact the movie highlighted several good reasons to stay away from the church: priest pedophilia and some mixed up relationships amongst church members. If a salesperson is trying to sell something, they need to talk about the benefits of the product they're pushing at least a little bit, right? All in all, this is probably a great film if you are a "church-every-Sunday" kind of person - this may be just the thing to make you feel great about your beliefs (basing this not on personal experience but on other reviews). But if you are that person, please don't kid yourself that this will be the movie to convince your non-believer friends that they should worship with you. For the non-believers, regardless of your non-believing status, this movie is skippable. The plot, characters, acting and writing is all pretty thin - not a whole lot of meat to chew on here.

I briefly wanted to give my two cents on this film, which I watched without any realization that it was a "Christian" film or having read the book. From the standpoint of an unbiased movie watcher, I found the framing device of the film to be just visually awful. The astronaut in space with the characters' faces photoshopped in, with typed words appearing in space... plainly put, it was bad. As was the hideous carrot and rabbit "traveling to the West Coast" scene. Such poorly placed/developed animated moments essentially ruined the presentation of the film's literary aspects with their artificial and hard-to- look-at appearances. My second thought is the lack of transitions in this film/strange delineation of time in correspondence with the equally strange depiction of college students ended up rubbing me the wrong way. The highly unrealistic and varying sense of time in this film just sent the viewer in all different directions. Along with the purely bizarre and two-dimensional portrayal of students, none of the illustrations of the college and its student body made any sense to me at all (I have never, ever come across an American campus like that, not even on the West Coast). One more thing about character development that bugs is me is that the protagonist is a person trying to cover up his past - but this motif is undeveloped, as the main character never really displays his "shame" of his past, and the film in fact skips over the ambivalence and confusion of his actual attempting to hide his former self. Actually, he seems like he fits in pretty damn well. (It's like the situation in Mean Girls, when Cady tries so hard to forget who she was that she actually does become one of the Plastics). Also, where's the conflict in this film? Obviously, it's not about the girl because she's always forgives him, and it's not about his Christianity because he seems to have quite forgotten about it over his year at college, and it's not about his mom's affair because she really only shows up twice or thrice in the entire movie. One other thing that annoyed me was how much the ending came out of nowhere - Don's emotional confession to Justin and his heedless cry for forgiveness for covering up his past, and his declaration that throughout the pot brownies, alcohol kegs and various activities that southern Baptists would frown upon, he never forgot about God. Interesting return to the "main idea" of the film. There are a lot of issues with this film, from the poor acting to the strange jumping around of themes and messages. Four stars for some well-shot scenes (the big party) and some comedic moments (the Christian/non-Christian debate).

As far as entertainment goes, it is entertaining. But the classic story of boy questions cult, boy comes running back to cult is as always a sad one. I might be willing to forgive the film for the story as it is such a staple. I'm not willing to forgive the film for the insulting and flippant treatment of pedophillia. The benevolent, progressive (he experiments with Catholicism) Mormon apologizing for sexual abuse, prompting instant forgiveness. Sexual abuse is also the implied reason for the victim's atheism. The lesbian discovers the girl she loves is heterosexual and comes to curl up in the Mormon boys bed.This film is a Christian conservative propaganda film masquerading as friendly college hijinks. Look for it at the closest church library.

(possible spoilers depending on POV) Many thoughts.. but ultimately it's a BS "christian" movie trying to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.Sorry religious types but it's a FAIL in the end.As for acting.. actually decent.. but nothing noteworthy.Short version: Skip it.. unless you are some evangelist...Pick what you believe and stand by it with critical thinking (something lacking from most people sadly)... and then come on back.Meantime in the end STOP trying to convert others etc etc etc... regardless of the medium.We can all think for ourselves. We can actually make our own decisions regardless of your approval.Like it or not but fact is not everyone is a willing sheep... regardless of what "religion" or lack thereof.Oh and Don't get me wrong.. if you choose to believe in X.. I applaud!. But I also applaud those that choose to worship -X as well.Remember.. freedom of religion is also freedom from religion. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.btw No I'm not Atheist.. I'm freedom of choice and my wife is NPRC.