Review of Same Kind of Different as Me (2017) by Stan H — 17 Oct 2017

It is the rare movie that causes me to cry while watching it, but "Same Kind of Different As Me" did just that. It is a touching story based on the New York Times Bestseller by the same name, which is an inspiring and true story of redemption.

This film depicts the true story of an extremely wealthy white privileged international art dealer Ron Hall, played by Greg Kinnear, who befriends Denver Moore, who is an angry and frustrated homeless black man, played by Djimon Hounsou, in hopes of saving his struggling marriage to Debbie, beautifully played by Renée Zellweger. Debbie's dreams lead the three of them along a incredible path of redemption, personal tragedy, and triumph. Hall and his emotionally troubled and distant father, played by Jon Voight, reconcile because of his new friendship with Denver. ??"Same Kind of Different" will resonate with my friends and acquaintances who are Ethical Humanists. The goal of Ethical Humanism is to honor the worth and dignity of every human being, cultivating character, nurturing ethical relationships and caring networks, building community capacity and social justice. This film depicts Ethical Humanism in action in a way I have never seen before.

This movie tells the story of Debbie and Ron Hall getting involved as volunteers at a soup kitchen where the homeless are fed every day. Denver shows up at the soup kitchen as an extremely angry man who dislikes white people because he was illegally enslaved by the white owner of a southern cotton plantation and never grew up like children should. He was also victimized by the KKK in his youth.

Debbie and Ron take Denver form a close friendship with each other that allows all three are redeemed from their troubles and allows Denver to rise up from his deeply troubled past to become a close friend to Ron and Debbie and go on to do wonderful work for the homeless, nationwide.

I saw a preview of this film tonight (10/18) at the Regal Riverview Theater in South Philly. This preview showing was hosted by the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, which has been housing and feeding homeless men and women in Philadelphia for at least the past 100 years. It is a charity that does wonderful work for Philadelphia's most vulnerable citizens. As Denver said in the movie, soup kitchens do a lot more than feed the homeless, they acknowledge their existence and don't pretend that they're invisible.

This film premiers that Saturday (10/21) at theaters nationwide.

I rate this film 5 out of 5 stars.