Whenever someone says a Christian movie was really good, I ask, "Was it a good movie or did it have a good message?" Cuz there's a big difference. I was quite excited to hear "Paul Apostle of Christ" was being made because I enjoyed "Risen" immensely (which was made by the same people as this movie). Unfortunately, in my opinion, "Paul" feel a bit flat.
Perhaps it was because I assumed it would be a telling of Paul's life, not of Luke writing it down but there just didn't seem to be much of a plot. Plus, as so often is the case, I wonder at why scriptwriters feel the need to have biblical characters say lines other than ones straight out of Scripture when the lines from Scripture are so powerful and easily understood. (I completely understand not using only Scripture - both for ease of understanding as well as creative license.)
One moment in the movie hit me in a profound way though. Paul says (seriously paraphrasing) - "If you are holding a handful of water, you must work very hard to keep it. Yet still it slowly drains away. Why work so hard to keep a handful of water when it's the ocean we've been offered?" Boom!
Indeed, more than the movie "Paul", the life of Paul should inspire us to press hard after the ocean instead of the handful.
I truly hope that many will be touched by this film. I was. In a small way, as mentioned above. For this reason, I was hesitant to write this review for I hate to turn anyone away from watching it. But I also don't want anyone going in with their expectations too high. It isn't an exciting movie but it was a movie with an exciting message.
"Film has been provided courtesy of Sony Entertainment Releasing Canada (Affirm Films) and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc."
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