Tyler Doherty (Tanner Maguire) is an eight-year-old boy suffering from brain cancer. In order to cope with his illness, he frequently writes letters addressed to God, mailing them and hoping he receives his transcribed prayers to relieve him and his parents from his sickness. The challenge for the mailman is what exactly to do with the letters. The mailman, in this case, is Brady McDaniels (Jeffrey Johnson), an alcoholic who replaces Tyler's once-loyal mailman. Right off the bat, you have your case studies for a wholesome, family-friendly Christian film.The wholesome film in question is Letters to God, which takes two real-life, relatable stories and degrades them with the kind of weepy, melodramatic screen writing that feels less like an emotional experience and more like a forceful extraction of tears from your tearducts. We weave in and out of each character's story, following Tyler's daily struggle of assimilating back into school after a two month absence and his relationship with a young, pretty girl named Samantha Perryfield (Bailee Madison) develop. Madison works to steal every scene she's in, with her ample amounts of energy, her illuminating smile, and her ability to add the most passable emotional leverage to a film already soaked to the marrow in dreary simplification and cheap, emotional manipulation.Letters to God caters to the demographic I've long wrote about when discussing contemporary Christian cinema, which is the kind of people that seek out these films and will love them no matter how abysmal the story, how incredulous the situational drama, or how ridiculous the dialog. They want to see their faith personified on screen by people they view are as wholesome as they are, and it doesn't matter whether or not there's a sole convincing scene in the film. As long as the film namedrops God and Jesus, has some scenes that involve prayer, and continue to abide by a god-fearing playbook, the core audience will be satisfied and the film will be classifiable as a sleeper hit, with more of its kind turning up as the years go on.The film, however, manages to offer slightly more interesting family drama than the genre is used to seeing. Consider Tyler's brother, played by Michael Bolten (take note of the spelling of the last name before you jump to conclusions), who is sick of watching his mother (Robyn Lively) continuously stress about how Tyler's condition, to the point where neither her nor anyone else living under the same roof can enjoy their own anymore. A scene occurs later in the film that shows the character frustrated, venting about how he wishes life can go back to the way it was, without all the talk about MRIs and nervous, late-night trips to the hospital. Scenes like this one can appreciate because they are unexpected and break from the tiresome playbook of Christian-filmmaking in the regard that they provide us with some realistic scenarios. Not to mention, it's one of the only moments in the film where God isn't given a shoutout at least once every sentence.Reading this review, you may think I loathe Christian cinema and detest every product it has produced in recent years. This couldn't be further from the truth. I am always intrigued by the genre, making an effort to watch many of its films and developing an understanding for its characters and its situations, and often, am surprised in one way or another by what it can do with what little budget it has. Letters to God, however, isn't interested in creating a story that predicates itself off of acting and scenarios one can find themselves invested in. It cares about cheapening the gospel and milking it for all the sentimentality its worth. The core audience at hand deserves much better than what this film can give them.Starring: Tanner Maguire, Jeffrey Johnson, Robyn Lively, Bailee Madison, and Michael Bolten. Directed by: David Nixon and Patrick Doughtie.

It is amazing that there are people still showing faith that God's love for His children is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. The story demands strong undercurrents of emotion and the actors delivered well. The pace is just right and the flow natural. As the tale unfolds, one begins to realize that letters written to God are received and read by God the moment the letter is written; the physical letter and actual delivery status inconsequential to the spiritual discourse it represents.Go on. Watch this movie and follow the lives of people where a loved one is dying of cancer. Discover how these people overcome bitterness and draw strengths from God in the face of losing a loved one.

My whole family, husband, 13yo daughter, and 10yo son loved the movie. Appreciated the positive message and real life summaries at the end. My son normally likes only action movies, but wanted to buy this one (we watched on Netflix) after the movie was over. A friend of ours has a young son battling cancer - this story was more personal to us as a result. Considering the budget for the movie, it was well-acted, great script, riveting. While the movie had a Christian message, it is based on a true story about the life of a Christian boy and how he impacted others. Regarding the negative reviews because of the Christian content, I wish there was similar outrage over foul language and the pervasive sexuality in nearly every movie that comes out of Hollywood. I was hesitant to watch this movie because of the low reviews, but my daughter's friends had seen it and said it was good, so I agreed to watch it. So glad I did. Will recommend to everyone - just make sure to have a tissue box nearby - it is a tear jerker throughout.

"You show that you are a letter from Christ ... written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." Those words - which are featured in the closing caption of the movie - are from 2 Corinthians 3:3, and really serve as the basis for this entire project. It's the story of young Tyler, suffering from an incurable type of brain cancer, who deals with his affliction by writing letters to God - letters which end up transforming the lives of virtually everyone he knows and many people he doesn't know. Tyler becomes - in the words of Mr. Perryfield (who's played by Ralph Waite, who may be the only actor in this I was familiar with) - "God's warrior." I may not like that particular imagery, but I understand the sentiment, and the movie makes the point that a little faith can go a long way. In a way, the movie and the story is a living witness to Jesus' parable of the mustard seed.That background aside, what of the movie itself? Frankly, it's not bad and it's not great. I think that people are going to end up judging this on the basis of their own belief or lack of belief in God rather than on the actual quality of the movie. Christians are going to love it and give it a lot of 10's; atheists are going to hate it and give it a lot of 1's. As with any movie of this type, though, the question that comes to my mind is why an atheist would want to watch it. As a Christian, I want to say honestly that there were parts of this movie that I really liked, and parts that I didn't care for at all.To start with what I didn't care for (because I want to end on a positive note.) The movie hits every cliché in the book. It pounds away at every evangelical Christian theme over and over again. For a movie that in many ways is quite touching, it's pretty hard sell. It seems to be an evangelistic effort - which surprises me a bit since this probably isn't going to attract very many who are outside the faith to watch it. On the other hand, I suppose, "there's rejoicing in heaven over one ..." Really, though, it does go on a little too long. It's close to two hours long, and after a while it loses some of its impact just because it keeps making the same points repeatedly. In all honesty, this likely could have been cut by about half an hour without losing any of its impact - and might have had even more impact if it were cut by half an hour. Tyler's story is great - at least according to this he faced his death with great courage - but I wondered about the decision to end the movie with stories of people of faith who've recovered from cancer and are going on with life. That doesn't prove much. There are many stories of people without faith who've recovered from cancer, and many stories of people with great faith who don't recover. I fear that in the end those stories tended to blur the memory of Tyler's story, which to me offered a far more powerful witness to the importance of faith - that faith could give a young boy the courage to face his own death and still keep the needs of others first and foremost in his thoughts (because many of the letters he wrote to God were intercessions for others.) To me, that was far more important than the stories of the cancer survivors at the end of the movie. I also have to be honest and say that I was turned off by Brady taking over Tyler's moment at the end. I understand that it was a way of showcasing Tyler's faith and his impact on people, but it seemed to move the spotlight on to Brady at that moment - which was not where it should have been!But there was a lot here I liked as well. I liked the movie's simplicity. There's nothing complicated about it. It's a straightforward story about faith, courage and transformation - and there's nothing wrong with that. From a Christian perspective, I liked the depiction of prayer in this. Those praying weren't praying especially for Tyler's healing - they were praying for strength and courage - for him, for themselves and for others. Surely that's what faith is about. As a pastor, if I'm dealing with someone who's dying or who's loved one is dying, I'm not going to pray with them primarily for healing; I'm going to pray with them primarily for strength. In that sense, the focus on Tyler's story makes the point that healing isn't always about the recovery of the body - sometimes healing is about the wellness of the spirit. Tyler's spirit was strong and healthy regardless of his body's condition. That was a good message. It seemed to me that this movie sums up why it is that Jesus spoke so approvingly of children and even used them as examples for adults - children can cut through the nonsense and see God where adults who are perhaps more jaded can't. They have simple and innocent faith and they know how to trust. Tyler becomes the example for those around him. "Become like little children," Jesus said. The movie helps explain those words.It's not great; it's not bad. The performances were OK; the movie perhaps a bit too formulaic. It's heartwarming but not riveting; it's inspiring but maybe goes over the same ground too often.