Review of God Bless the Broken Road (2018) by Tiffany K — 11 Sep 2018

I rarely bother rating or reviewing anything on here, let alone with an actual review, but kinda felt people should at least be fairly warned. The movie is generic and utterly unmemorable, with just the thinnest effort put into the art of film-making. In the end, it's little more than pandering and manipulation, which is rendered all the more blatant with the little "put your faith to work and tell everyone you know to see this movie, and we'll donate 5% of what you give us to a good cause" message that pops up on the screen at the end. Now, granted, those who thought disrespectful tripe like "God's Not Dead" to be truly brilliant might just lap it up, but for those seeking at least some actual depth and skill in their movie-going, you're better off simply donating the full value of your local ticket price to DAV instead and catching this one on streaming later if you really feel the need to see it. You'll do far more good with the money that way than the measly 5% of their share that they promise to give, and might discourage future efforts at such emotional blackmail in place of actual film-making effort. And, I say all this as someone who loves movies in general and literally sees pretty much everything that comes out in wide release at local theaters (and, later, many smaller releases as well). It's rare for me to come across a major release that I truly can't find real redemptive value in, or at least have simple fun with just for what it is.

Now, granted, it's not all bad. The movie is clean; the child actors are cute; and the messages contained within are largely focused on the legitimately positive this time around, albeit shoveled on with all the subtlety of being run over by a bus - this isn't a movie that's going to leave you to figure out anything for yourself when it can directly preach it to you a hundred times over instead. I remember that not long ago it was noted that we need more Christian filmmakers making good movies, rather than Christian filmmakers making Christian movies. Sadly, this movie is yet another example of the stark difference between the two concepts in modern faith-based films. They've become the new money-grabs, crafted from the dregs of people's skills and talents hoping for quick cash, rather than being an art form with an audience that demands quality. Because so many from the target audience are so easily pleased by a movie merely being in the genre, the genre as a whole is quickly diving for the bottom, increasingly shut off not only from the wider movie-going audience they might claim to hope to reach, but from all but a small core base of Christian viewers as well, as even most mainstream Christians are reluctant to spend the money on movies which repeatedly fall flat. And this one is, sadly, no exception. I only watched it because it was the only movie playing at my theater I hadn't seen yet, and I still want my two hours back so that I can spend them doing literally anything else.