![]() The R rating reflects strong profanity and bawdy, politically incorrect sexual innuendo. Apart from gorgeous vistas from the Appalachian Trail, the film is a plain, unsubtle affair, but it's often amusing and quite touching. (98 minutes)įor high-schoolers who get a charge out of their grandparents' stories, "A Walk in the Woods" could be a nice diversion. Their idyll is interrupted by the appearance of Caleb (Chris Pine), a former coal miner eager for company and, Loomis suspects, to win Ann and squeeze him out. Ann is religious and Loomis is not, but they don't argue about it. Ann nurses him through radiation sickness and, tentatively, they become housemates - chaste, but with the possibility of love. Out with her dog one day, she meets another human being, John Loomis (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an engineer who survived the war because he worked deep underground. She tills her fields and reads books from the library in the village below. Ann (Margot Robbie) lives alone on a little farm - perhaps alone in the world. O'Brien, the film takes place in a green Appalachian valley, which because of its location was spared from a nuclear holocaust. ![]() It’s only in the late going that the marital drama turns somewhat more authentic, helping to restore a bit of the audience’s, well, faith.While it's rated PG-13 and includes no graphic violence or sexual situations, "Z for Zachariah" is a mature tale told in a ruminative style and may be a better fit for high-schoolers. “The first couple of acts of the Kendricks’ latest, “War Room,” are so heavy on broad pulpit pounding that it’s challenging to get swept along by the story’s message. I’m no expert on warmongering, but alienating half your army doesn’t seem like sound strategy.” But the Kendricks have further limited that audience by presenting an emphatically anti-feminist picture of faith, repeatedly underscoring the idea that a woman must be submissive to her husband. The filmmakers are upfront about their religious intent, and it follows that their audience is a targeted one. “I lodge no complaint against the film’s emphasis on prayer, even if, dramatically, it’s not scintillating stuff to watch. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are plenty of religious wives (and children) who’ve eventually been beaten and even killed by abusive husbands/fathers despite all of the prayers in the world.”Īlso Read: 'Straight Outta Compton' to Smoke Owen Wilson's 'No Escape,' Zac Efron's 'We Are Your Friends' at Box Office Instead, she should respect, love, forgive, and pray for him, and let God do the rest. “The flick has a potentially dangerous ‘remedy’ to domestic abuse … it’s not up to Elizabeth to change or judge her husband, regardless of his behavior. “It’s innocuous enough fare, though it’s creepy to encourage women to believe the true source of their husbandly woes is Satan rather than an issue that probably needs to be discussed.” All the Satan-rebuking speeches in the world can’t make a story uplifting when it subtly suggests that you can tell a real Christian by the way everything always works out exactly the way they pray for it.”Īlso Read: Faith-Based 'War Room' Poised to Become Box-Office Sleeper Hit “Structurally, the movie is a mess, building to so many different endings it really should’ve been called ‘The Return of the King of Kings.’ And even more troubling is the mix of victim-blaming in an emotionally-abusive relationship and an infantile depiction of prayer that turns God into a genie who gives your husband food poisoning before he can cheat on you. Scott Renshaw from Salt Lake City Weekly: “‘War Room’ might also have been better if it wasn’t shot like a term-life insurance infomercial, if Alex Kendrick and his co-editor Stephen Hullfish hadn’t let every shot last just a beat too long, and if the soundtrack dropped some of its Christian rock anthems.” “Preachy doesn’t begin to describe “War Room,” a mighty long-winded and wincingly overwrought domestic drama from Sony’s faith-based Affirm Films division.”ĭaniel Eagan from Film Journal International: Michael Rechtshaffen from The Los Angeles Times: Here are the 7 of the harshest reviews about “War Room:” Stalling and Karen Abercrombie, and is directed by brothers Stephen and Alex Kendrick.Īlso Read: Zac Efron DJ Drama 'We Are Your Friends' Debuts Quietly at Thursday Box Office With $175,000 The drama follows a seemingly perfect family looking to fix their problems, so they turn to an older, wiser lady named Miss Clara. The Sony release garnered a Rotten Tomato score of 18 percent and reviewers called it “a mess,” “anti-feminist” and an “infantile depiction of prayer.” “War Room” may have crushed Zac Efron‘s “We Are Your Friends” at the box office on Thursday - the Christian drama grossed $600,000 compared to the meager $175,000 for “Friends” - but critics were decidedly less friendly than audiences.
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