By Cindy Crompton

Editor’s Note: We critics are a jaded lot, and it’s just impossible for us to see everything, so from time to time I invite guest critics in to give fresh perspective on films that I think are significant, like God’s Not Dead. Today’s guest critic is Cindy (MacIntosh) Crompton, mom of three, grand mom of six, blissfully retired (lucky girl!) and a fellow Hemet High grad. BTW: If you note the glaring omission of your favorite recent film and would like to review it for AtHomeInHollywood.com, use the Contact page and let me know!

In God’s Not Dead, Kevin Sorbo (a Christian in real life), plays an atheist philosophy professor who ask his students on the first day of class to sign a paper saying “God ‘is’ dead,” so he doesn’t have to waste time debating the existence of the “big man in the sky.”  One student, devout Christian Josh Wheaton, played by Shane Harper, refuses to sign the paper, and so begins a challenging debate in which Josh attempts to prove God’s existence to his fellow classmates, or face a failing grade for the semester.

Although I felt the argument/debate was a little lean in parts, there is only so much you can put into a movie script.  Josh knows there was an underlying reason why this professor felt so negatively about God, which comes out when he asks him, “Why do you hate God so much?” As a Christian, it made me hold my breath for a second.

I found the characters believable and the situations felt real. A reporter, who has cancer and is a non-believer, an Arabic girl whose father threw her out of the house because she was a Christian and the elderly lady who has Alzheimer’s were very convincing.  To see everyone come together at the end gave me a feel good moment, and I wanted to see more.  This movie has a lot of questions, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to give a lot of answers.  To me, as a Christian, I don’t need an explanation, however for the non-believers, might raise the question “What if God’s not dead?”

Rated PG

1 Hour 53 Minutes