I Can Only Imagine (110 min)
Directors: Andrew Erwin & Jon Erwin
- Michael Finley, Alexander Dominguez , Madeline Carroll , Cole Marcus Brody Rose, Dennis Quaid , Gianna Simone , J.R. Cacia
The movie draws its story from the life of Bart Millard, the American singer/ songwriter and lead voice of the Christian rock band – Mercy Me. Bart’s song mentioned in the title became the most popular Christian song in 1999, included in the Album Almost There. Born in rural Texas the son of Arthur Millard, an abusive ex-American footballer, Bart grew up resentful and lonely, a condition made worse especially after his mother abandoned the family when he was still a little boy. His only comfort was pop music and his comforting friendship with Shannon, later to be his girlfriend. His embittered alcoholic father bullied him into becoming a football player at school, ignoring Bart’s passion for music. Arthur drives him hard to become a champion player, but it ends abruptly when he sustains a serious injury in the field. The wheelchair bound boy is drafted into the school choir initially as a technician. His talent finds him a place in the church choir. Impressed by his voice the teacher forces the unwilling boy onstage to lead in a musical drama to great applause. Meanwhile Arthur is discovered with a life threatening illness that he chooses to ignore. Things reach a breaking point when Arthur who hates church, in the heat of an argument breaks the dinner plate on Bart’s head injuring him. Bart leaves home. Bidding a painful goodbye to Shannon, he takes to the road and leads a new band of musicians named Mercy Me in Oklahoma. They perform and produce albums but are not quite as popular as they wish to be. At one point his studio manager Scott Brickell tells him that his performance appears fake; his songs do not have the sincerity grounded in experience. After a music convention, Brickell asks him:“what are you running away from?” Though he had always been a Christian, it is now that Bart awakens to the fact of his broken family that needs healing. He returns home to his lonely father now dying of cancer. The dramatic reunion is a turning point. The experience of mutual forgiveness makes Bart realize how much he loved his father, the man whom he hated once and now the one he wanted to be like.
The Lamp (2011) – (96minutes)
Director: Tracy Trost
Cast: Jason London, Roger Nix, Sarah Joy Brown, Chuck Brown Muse Watson, Greson Moore, Cameron Ten Napel Georgia Cole, Katie Burgess
Stanley and Lisa Walters lose their only child Eddy in a bicycle accident while his father was coaching him. Stanley, an upcoming author and baseball coach had built his dreams around Eddy. After the event Stanley isolates himself from everyone including the suffering Lisa who is a gym coach. Even after her two years’ efforts to make Stan return to life, Stan is mostly confined to his computer with Cooper the dog for company and sleeps in the dead boy’s room. Their marriage is about to break. Unable to let go of the memories of Eddy the budding baseball prodigy, Stan gives up coaching his son’s team. When the neighborhood organizes a garage sale to raise funds for the children’s baseball team, Lisa donates some of Eddy’s clothes for sale. Their genial neighbour, Miss Esther, a foster mother of three children, brings an antique brass oil lamp which has miraculous powers. Esther tells Lisa that this lamp can give its owner the wisdom of the ages. Having enjoyed its benefits so long she wanted to pass it on to the next owner, informing Lisa that she had not bought it. It needed to find “the right owner”. Esther would not take the lamp back from Lisa. When she returns home with the lamp, Stanley picks up a bitter quarrel because he thinks that Lisa has given his son’s clothes to the highest bidder and taken the lamp in exchange. He throws it in the garbage can. But the lamp mysteriously reappears on their table. Lisa cleans the lamp when she discovers the phrase “Just Believe” on its side. Something mysterious happens at that moment and a man knocks at the door. Gradually with the arrival of this stranger who introduces himself as Charles Montgomery, a deep soul searching happens in Stanley and Lisa. Their life begins to change. They start experiencing trust, hope, and the healing power of faith setting the right priorities in life that make for happiness.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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