Review of The Case for Christ (2017) by Tony Z — 25 Apr 2017

I enjoyed this Christian film much better than most. It was far more intellectually appealing than some of the saccharine, too emotional, seemingly just-for-kids-and-fools flicks, that have overly simple plots, bad acting, and not very well thought-out arguments. As another Christian film-maker put it: far too many Christian films pander to the point of being patronizing, to a Christian audience, or worse: they beat you over the head with their Bible in a way that would turn off any reasonable and rational thinking viewer.

That doesn't mean there is no drama nor tears here. Lee's faith is obviously swayed by emotion, both from finding the love of his past family members and constant forgiveness of his present family, but that does not cancel out Lee's need to remain a rational, skeptical, detective; digging for answers without hesitation or apology, until he gets to the truth.

In a great family argument that was probably much more simple, in real life: "Honey, I want to start taking the kids to church. Would you come too?" and answered with: "Naw, I can't get up on Sunday. Is it okay if I just write a religious book instead?".

Turned into a major family drama for the movie, complete with a drunken Lee constantly accusing his wife of having an affair; (the last thing he needs to worry about with a sincerely Christian wife), I have to say: the real Lee Strobel must by quite a humble and easy-going guy, with a great sense of humor, to allow himself to be portrayed as the drunken, almost-abusive bastard father and husband, though obviously just suffering from a lot of stress at work and not liking the simultaneous changes and new expectations at home. I figure the "case for Christ" is made in BOTH sub-plots within the same film. Lee lives and works in a world of constant deceit, scandals, and frame-up jobs. He covers the crime which takes place on the mean streets of Chicago, and all of it's violence and corruption. He gets lied to and misled on a regular basis, by people who clearly have no sense of ethics. If this was the kind of world Lee lived and worked in, and he knew he was raising his youngsters in, is it any wonder he would want to make a case for Christ?