Review of The Case for Christ (2007) by Simon C — 06 May 2017

"The Case for Christ" movie review:

I heartily recommend this film. Skeptics might find it interesting, Christians will find it deeply moving and Cinemas need to know that it's worth putting on these sort of films.

If you know nothing about this film, it is an adaptation of a true story about Lee Strobel, a committed atheist who in 1980 sets out to save his wife from her conversion to Christianity by using his skills as an investigatory journalist to debunk the resurrection of Jesus. Lee went on write about his findings in the book "The Case for Christ" which became an international bestseller and a modern Christian classic.

This film is by far the most well-made, professional, overtly Christian film in the last 13 years, since Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (and even that film I had way more problems with than this). It's not a masterpiece of writing or filmmaking, but it definitely stands up against any other average Hollywood drama. That's not a huge recommendation for film-lovers, but when you see this movie is produced by the same production company that made the terrible Christian film "God's Not Dead", it really is impressive.

Usually, Christian films feel very forced and contrived with the atheist characters being unrealistically stupid and the Christians being overly nice and having no baggage. Thankfully, The Case for Christ avoids that sort of stereotypical superficiality. The characters feel real and three-dimensional. Lee Strobel's wife is messy and realistic as a new Christian and Lee's atheism is genuine and (at the start of the film) even portrayed in an attractive light. In fact, there are atheists and agnostics in the story that are portrayed as intelligent and genuine, even though they remain skeptical til the end.

The only parts of the film that felt a little forced to me were Lee's interaction with various experts as he sought out answers to his questions. They crammed what most likely were hours of conversation into a few minutes of interaction, with every expert having the particular article or document or piece of evidence easily at hand perfectly when needed. This felt a little manufactured, but that was simply due to the nature of the film needing to fit everything in, rather than the actual content of the conversations feeling unrealistic.

To the skeptic these short interactions may leave them feeling unconvinced, making Lee's eventual conclusions seem unrealistic. This is a fair criticism of the film. This film is not a documentary and so the evidence for the resurrection is skimmed over and rushed. An atheist may see the film and be very puzzled as to why Lee found the evidence so compelling. My hope in this is that this will lead a skeptic to look into the evidence themselves and maybe even read Lee Strobel's book where each of these interactions are covered in much more depth.

Despite the flaw of these rushed scenes, they do not really hurt the overall quality of the film because they are really not what the film is about. The real heart of this film is Lee's marriage and that is incredibly portrayed by actors Mike Vogel and especially Erica Christensen (who played Lee's wife, Leslie Strobel). Her spiritual journey and her struggles as a new Christian were very moving. Anyone who has loved ones who do not yet know Christ will connect with her heartbreak and sense of isolation. As Lee searches the evidence for the resurrection, she searches the Scriptures, finding encouragement, hope and comfort in her longing for her husband. I don't know how her story will come across to a non-Christian, but on more than one occasion it brought me to tears.

In the end, The Case for Christ is not a perfect film. As a tool to convince skeptics of the truth of Christianity it is left wanting. The arguments are skimmed through and the gospel itself is not fully explained (the reason for the cross is summarised with no more than one word: "love"). But this film should not be related to as an evangelistic tool. I definitely would recommend seeing it with your skeptical friends, but it is best viewed as a testimony rather than an exhaustive gospel presentation. The powerful story of Lee and his wife, and the emotional, intellectual, relational and spiritual conflict caused by the introduction of Christ into their life, is what makes this film worth seeing and worth taking your friends to.

I'd also highly recommend Christian parents take their teenage kids to this film. It will inspire great conversation and encourage them in their own journey of faith.

And if you're a skeptic, this film holds out a great challenge - if you want to see if Christianity is true, investigate the resurrection. Although this film doesn't go through all of the evidence in enough detail to satisfy you (if you want that, read the book), it definitely does make the case that the evidence is there and it suggests that if you value reason and science and logic (as many atheists state they do) then like Lee Strobel, you can boldly and honestly look into Jesus without leaving your brain at the door.

Make sure you see this film soon, as it is only showing in very select cinemas (in Victoria it's only in one Hoyts cinema) and it probably won't be showing for long. I also think Christians need to encourage these sort of quality Christian films to be produced, so pay that ridiculous ticket price and pay for your friend if you have to. It's well worth seeing.