To Save A Life (movie review)
How important is somebody's life? Is it worth putting effort into a relationship with them? Is anything else worth more?
To Save A Life proclaims the question, "What would you do to save a life?", as its proposed theme. Which, although a good question to ask, didn't come across to me as the movie's actual message. School violence is also one of its promoted themes, and another point I disagree with it on.
So, despite being different from what it says, (I will explain shortly) that in no way ruins the movie itself. Here's some of the pluses for this movie: first, while it may be called a "christian film", I know the stereotype placed on that label is totally messed up- twisted and degraded to lies, and so I don't call To Save A Life a "christian film". Facts said, the film isn't preachy, and instead of trying to explain God, and show how a christian should live their life, (a completely hopeless task to show in a movie, because all the ignorant and eyes-covered-ears-plugged-nothing-but-I-hate-films-with-faith-in-them people will just hate on the film and say it's stupid and how bad the acting is and other crap and everyone will believe them even though they should think for themselves instead) and, I'll restart now.
The movie isn't preachy, instead doing a great (and I mean well done and realistic) job of showing the perspectives of believers looking at non-believers, and vice-versa. In my opinion, this is one of the films strongest points. This is because To Save A Life brings up a lot of different points that you wouldn't expect given the title and description. All these different points take away from the proposed subject, and consequently, To Save A Life suffers from a sort of identity crisis. Which point is it trying to make? So while doing a good job of bringing up pointed thoughts, it also ends somehow feeling decidedly unfinished.
There is also a healthy amount of awkward dialogue too, and I don't mean theatrically awkward, I mean realistically and obviously AWKWARD. Believe or not, I praise To Save A Life for this. It would be easy to bash the movie and say it had horrible acting and christianese splattered around ham-handedly, but it would be a lie. The situations involving said horrible acting and christanese are realistic. Ever had that conversation with someone? Ever tried to start it? Remember that response? Remember forcing a smile, or having one unwillingly appear?
Weakest point: To Save A Life brings up almost to many points, and although having well done characters, leaves feeling unfinished because of them. Edict: Theatrically a small disappointment, because the ending is only adequate, so you'd best enjoy the movie itself instead, and forget coming away with a feeling of completeness. Besides, that's actually pretty realistic too, life and people never "finish" as thoroughly as those on film. Of course, the ending feeling anti-climatic may just be personal preference, as I've no idea how it could have been done better. It's just that some characters were left pretty vague.
Strongest point: Painfully easy to identify with most characters. Also, does a good job of including real faith, the bigotry of simple religion, and a small part of the dismal slum of sin. That is, everyone apart from those with true faith, who are not perfect even though being on the right path now.
I highly recommend seeing To Save A Life. End of review.
To Save A Life proclaims the question, "What would you do to save a life?", as its proposed theme. Which, although a good question to ask, didn't come across to me as the movie's actual message. School violence is also one of its promoted themes, and another point I disagree with it on.
So, despite being different from what it says, (I will explain shortly) that in no way ruins the movie itself. Here's some of the pluses for this movie: first, while it may be called a "christian film", I know the stereotype placed on that label is totally messed up- twisted and degraded to lies, and so I don't call To Save A Life a "christian film". Facts said, the film isn't preachy, and instead of trying to explain God, and show how a christian should live their life, (a completely hopeless task to show in a movie, because all the ignorant and eyes-covered-ears-plugged-nothing-but-I-hate-films-with-faith-in-them people will just hate on the film and say it's stupid and how bad the acting is and other crap and everyone will believe them even though they should think for themselves instead) and, I'll restart now.
The movie isn't preachy, instead doing a great (and I mean well done and realistic) job of showing the perspectives of believers looking at non-believers, and vice-versa. In my opinion, this is one of the films strongest points. This is because To Save A Life brings up a lot of different points that you wouldn't expect given the title and description. All these different points take away from the proposed subject, and consequently, To Save A Life suffers from a sort of identity crisis. Which point is it trying to make? So while doing a good job of bringing up pointed thoughts, it also ends somehow feeling decidedly unfinished.
There is also a healthy amount of awkward dialogue too, and I don't mean theatrically awkward, I mean realistically and obviously AWKWARD. Believe or not, I praise To Save A Life for this. It would be easy to bash the movie and say it had horrible acting and christianese splattered around ham-handedly, but it would be a lie. The situations involving said horrible acting and christanese are realistic. Ever had that conversation with someone? Ever tried to start it? Remember that response? Remember forcing a smile, or having one unwillingly appear?
Weakest point: To Save A Life brings up almost to many points, and although having well done characters, leaves feeling unfinished because of them. Edict: Theatrically a small disappointment, because the ending is only adequate, so you'd best enjoy the movie itself instead, and forget coming away with a feeling of completeness. Besides, that's actually pretty realistic too, life and people never "finish" as thoroughly as those on film. Of course, the ending feeling anti-climatic may just be personal preference, as I've no idea how it could have been done better. It's just that some characters were left pretty vague.
Strongest point: Painfully easy to identify with most characters. Also, does a good job of including real faith, the bigotry of simple religion, and a small part of the dismal slum of sin. That is, everyone apart from those with true faith, who are not perfect even though being on the right path now.
I highly recommend seeing To Save A Life. End of review.
And now to add it to Netflix...
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