Review of Little Boy (2015) by Wilson C — 29 Apr 2015

Oh my goodness. I want so much to like faith-based movies, and sometimes I can, but this movie was just terrible. One critic said it is a faith-based movie with the rare quality of being potentially offensive to those with faith. That describes exactly how I felt about it. The pastor of the parish tries to encourage Little Boy to hope in his father's return but does so very clumsily, even misleadingly. The boy follows Father's good advice in action yet never prays for God's assistance. In fact, while Father's advice was good, he never actually suggests that Little Boy pray!Instead Little Boy depends on his own childish, bizarre attempts to bring his father home through magic. That both he and the townspeople believe his "magic" worked is beyond the pale in a supposedly faith-based film. Even worse, the tragic (although arguably necessary) historic event ascribed to his efforts would be a wildly inappropriate act for a child.

The worst part of this bad film is its attempt to pull in 21st century atheism in a 1940's setting. "Imaginary friend in the sky" coming from an adult in the 1940's? One of the things about the generation before mine is that adults were adults. They didn't use trite, childish arguments against the existence of God. That's a hallmark of shallow college-kid thinking today. It had no place in this movie.

I had a hard time sitting through this movie. I stayed til the end hoping it would get better, but I needn't have.