<i>Do You Believe?</i> Aims For Its Target Audience and Succeeds

is another faith based film from the makers of last year's. This time however, they have stepped up production values as well as having a much stronger cast.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Do You Believe? is another faith based film from the makers of last year's God Is Not Dead. This time however, they have stepped up production values as well as having a much stronger cast. In this film you have actors such as Cybill Shepherd, Delroy Lindo, Mira Sorvino and Sean Astin who bring a believability to a story concerning hope for the hopeless.

The premise of the film is that 12 persons are leading lives headed toward a cataclysmic event. Some will survive and some will not, and many lives will be changed. In many ways this plot reminded me of Thornton Wilder's novel The Bridge Of San Luis Rey in which members of another group of people were joined together by a tragic event.

Some of the people in the Do You Believe? story are an older couple (Shepherd and Lee Majors) who have lost their only child; a preacher and his wife (Ted McGinley and Tracy Melchoir) who are not able to conceive a child; a mother and her young daughter (Sorvino and Makenzie Moss) who find themselves homeless; a young nurse and her firefighter husband (Valerie Dominguez and Liam Matthews) who are caught up in a court case that may ruin their lives.

With so many stories to be told, it is surprising the writers of the script are able to give these people as much depth as they do. The audience gets drawn into their stories and is with them step by step as they are drawn to their fate. Of course the actors believability in these roles is also an essential element. One of the best of the cast is Brian Bosworth, who plays a man of mystery who gets involved with several characters in this story.

This movie makes no effort to be anything other than what it is, and that is a Christian-themed movie. It has a target audience and that group is served in every way. In many aspects it is like the movies created by the Kendricks Brothers, such as Courageous and Fireproof. They were aimed at a specific audience and found much success in focusing there.

Movies like Do You Believe? will not appeal to audiences across the board. Still you could take out some of the preachiness in the film and still have a movie that entertains. That might be enough to bring some non-Christians aboard.

The movie is rated PG-13 for some mild violence.

For those who enjoy a faith based movie and have been wanting to see one which also entertains, "Do You Believe?" is an answer to prayer.

I scored Do You Believe? a faithful 7 out of 10.

www.jackiekcooper.com

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot