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Hayden Christensen

Comfort Films #7: Air Force [GLASS]

May 15, 2020 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

When times are tough, what stories do you turn to? Our new series, Comfort Films, is designed to look at the stories that are important to us and why they help bring us up with everything feels down. This week, Seeing and Believing’s Wade Bearden and Kevin McLenithan return to chat about uncovering the truth in Shattered Glass, good vs evil in Air Force One and life-giving honesty in Chef.

You can also stream the episode above on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Soundcloud! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts or Google Play!

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Podcast Tagged With: Air Force One, Chef, Ethan Embry, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Harrison Ford, Hayden Christensen, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr, Rosario Dawson, Scarlett Johansson, Shattered Glass

90 Minutes In Heaven: What Comes Next Matters Now

September 11, 2015 by Jacob Sahms Leave a Comment

90minutesbridge

Most films culminate in a big screen moment, whether it’s the dramatic reunion of long lost loved ones or the explosive battle royale. 90 Minutes in Heaven is that rare film that starts at the end, and then moves forward to what comes after that. Under the artful direction of Michael Polish (Big Sur), Hayden Christensen and Kate Bosworth play Don and Eva Piper, the real-life couple whose experiences inspire the film. Based on the Pipers’ memoirs, 90 Minutes in Heaven and A Walk in the Dark, the film asks how we’re supposed to move forward when we’ve seen heaven but our world is so broken?

In 1988, returning from a pastors’ conference on a rain-soaked day, Don Piper was crushed by a truck. Pronounced dead in the scene, Piper is revived when a passerby feels called to pray for him. While Piper has a wonderful recollection of heaven, complete with hope-inspiring light and long-dead relatives, his earthly reality is excruciating and fragmented. Doctors try to put Piper back together while his wife and friends try to pick up the pieces of their lives and ministry.

I’ll leave what exactly Piper saw and how we respond to that for ourselves to other reviews. [I’m sure that a number of people will be happy to chime in about its ‘reliability’ or not.] I don’t think that is what the movie is really about. Polish set out to tell us what it was like for Piper’s body to be crushed by the truck and his soul to be fragmented by the pain … and the absence of his pure experience. While Heaven Is For Real became bogged down with its attempt to show us what heaven was like from a toddler’s perspective, heaven itself is a blip on 90 Minutes’ radar. What Polish is most concerned with here is how the Pipers move forward and how it impacts others.

You probably can ascertain, even if you’ve never read the book, that the Pipers’ story has made a difference. You just don’t make a movie about an event from thirty years ago if it didn’t matter! The truth is that Piper’s story, “hope is attainable and God loves you,” has reached millions in its book form. With a film version, the Pipers’ story should reach tens of millions.

90minutesWhile some movies make their message the main thing, eschewing skill and filmmaking for preachy narrative, 90 Minutes makes us believe that hope is possible because the Pipers’ story is remarkably dark and yet they rise above it. Christensen is superb as a broken man; Bosworth’s portrayal of Eva proves this humble woman’s resolve and deep, deep faith. The film itself proves funny, lyrical (stand up, Michael W. Smith!), and inspiring, without ever settling for a vanilla, naive look at pain and suffering.

A few days ago, I wrote in my review of The Age of Adaline that “If we’re honest with ourselves, we have questions about what happens next. In the next five minutes, the next five years, in the next … hereafter. Our fiction reflects this, as we read stories and watch movies about people who live forever, people who create technology to extend life, and people who come back from death.” 90 Minutes is a ripped-from-the-headlines experience that says we do know what comes next because the Bible tells us so.

Using John 14 as a snapshot of what Jesus had to say about the future (heaven, the kingdom of God, etc.), we can see that he had a pretty spectacular place in mind for us with God but he also said we were supposed to live a certain way here. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, and he told us to take hope even in the midst of things we can’t understand or which trouble us. Sure, Don Piper came back with a story of heaven, but 90 Minutes implies (strongly) that it matters how we live in the here and now.

Don’s recovery is physical, spiritual, and emotional; Eva’s growth occurs because she refuses to let go of her husband, even when he is pushing her away. It’s a powerful narrative that explores life after death, but it also pulls back the curtain on a troubling time in the Pipers’ marriage that we all can learn from.

Suffering is complicated and nearly guaranteed as part of life, but faith brings joy and peace in the midst of this, the hope in things we can’t see. Don Piper’s story of what he saw gave him hope and the resolve to tell others that they should hope, too. And cinematically, that is delivered in a dramatic, emotional retelling of the Pipers’ grace and strength.

For more on the film, check out our interview with the real-life couple, Michael Polish and Kate Bosworth, here. 

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: 90 Minutes In Heaven, A Walk in the Dark, Big Sur, Don Piper, Eva Piper, Hayden Christensen, Kate Bosworth, Michael Polish, Michael W. Smith

American Heist: Two Brothers Walk Into A Bank…

September 8, 2015 by Jacob Sahms Leave a Comment

kinopoisk.ru

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Two brothers commit a violent crime; one brother goes to jail and is completely tormented by life beyond bars, while the other tries to make amends (and finds love). Once released, the first/older brother urges the other/younger brother to do “one last job” to make things right, with disastrous results. If that doesn’t sound predictable or trite, please continue. Otherwise… I’ll tell you that Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen give it their all as brothers Frankie and James.

It’s complete unfortunate that Armenian director Sarik Andreasyan made his debut with American Heist. His moody vibe gave the film a richness that it lacked otherwise, but the script just wasn’t strong enough to sell me on the crime noir presented here.

Rounding out the small main cast are Akon as Sugar, the gang leader who Frankie is in debt to, and Jordana Brewster as Emily, the cop James fell for. Unfortunately, Brewster, Brody, and Christensen have all had better, deeper roles, and that raised the bar for this one. Still, Brody’s portrayal of a man who has been broken by time on the inside of prison is heartfelt and moving. For those who have never been incarcerated, it’s probably impossible to understand the pain of that experience. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you’re guilty or not; once you’re inside prison, it changes people.

One can only hope that people seeing movies like this recognize that crime doesn’t pay. Do the brothers ever get away? Do they ever get scared straight? Do we ever recognize the faults in someone else’s decisions and change our behavior? If anything, this is a moral tale of two brothers who repeat the same mistakes until they lead themselves down a path they can’t undo. Nathaniel Hawthorne might have been proud.

Filed Under: DVD, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Adrien Brody, Akon, Hayden Christensen, Jordana Brewster

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