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2006-02-21 - 12:27 a.m.

�Got your nose�


Brrrr, what happened to spring.

Jill was walking with a grad student from China on a brisk day and exclaimed �Brrrr!� in response to the frigid temperature.

�Buuh?� Her friend looked at her quizzically, �What is Buuuh?�

I guess they don�t cover non verbal winter communications in ESL classes.


So, being a Christian commentator, and an avid Movie buff, you�d expect me to have something to say about the new movie �The Second Chance��

�and you�d be right.

I understand completely if you�ve never heard of this film, the studio that released it did almost ZERO mainstream advertising, and it is not playing in several states, Maryland for example. I imagine that the studio is pushing it through the churches and through church magazines ect.

Luckily it�s playing in three theaters in Durham, and also in Virginia so Jill and her Mom were able to go.

As far as movies �By Christians for Christians� go it�s the best I�ve seen. On that exclusive scale it gets a 9-10. Of course some of the other films on that scale rank among the worst films ever made so�

Compared to mainstream film I would give it 5-10.

It is not what I expected at all, and by not following the tried and true I think the filmmakers were able to expose some of what is wrong with the Church today, as well as what is right.

What I liked about this movie is that it is real, as real as this kind of movie can be anyway.

What is best about this movie is failure. The characters fail as often as they succeed, just like real life. The characters also don�t get along just because they share a common faith. The movie never tries to sell �Just Believe in God and all your worldly problems will disappear�

The film addresses the white/black divide that is so prevalent in the church today. It will make a lot of people uncomfortable which is a very good thing. For a Christian movie, it is pretty edgy in it�s dialogue and depictions of white and black Christian leaders. Earning a PG-13. The filmmakers were not afraid of offending the very people that this film is aimed at.

Acting wise� well no one will be receiving any calls from the academy, but again for this type of movie the performances were very good. Michael W. Smith puts in a credible performance as a good hearted but misguided pastor from a wealthy white mega church and Jeff Obafemi is also believable in his role as a the jaded pastor of an inner city black church.

I�ve met both of these people, their real life counter parts that is, and I can say that this is really what�s going on.

I�ve also seen first hand the tension between well meaning but ill informed church efforts to �Lift up poor black people� I�m happy that this movie confronts these issues head on.

It has its faults. I mentioned the acting is good for the most part but there are times your aware that it�s amateur night at the Apollo.
For a movie that is very good about stating that black people don�t need white people to give them a helping hand, the scene where Michael W. Smith sits in with the rather lifeless all black church band and suddenly it is a gospel powerhouse is pretty cringe worthy. I mean come on, I think the �W� in his name stands for �Whitey� 40 Dove awards or not, he is not exactly the soul brother of Contemporary Christian Music.

The other major thing that bothered me was the way that the writer was comfortable about exposing the failings of the white church, and white folks in general, but shied away from direct criticism of the black church and black people. It reminded me a lot of modern western movies where the white man is evil and the Native American is good and noble.

It�s never that black and white.

This movie is all about race so I feel justified in another race based criticism, one that I�ve noticed in movies made by and for black audiences as well. In film, black-leading men can be any color, from very light to very dark, and for the most part they tend towards the darker skin tones. Black-leading ladies on the other hand, must be light skinned, the lighter skinned the better. Just something I�ve noticed.

Faults included I highly recommend it to Christian audiences; secular folks might enjoy it, but may not find it relevant.

-Justus


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