Reviews

I laughed until my stomach ached and, if there is a God, it must be laughing right along with Julia Sweeney as she tells the hilarious, poignant, and touching tale of how she overcame her religious upbringing and need to believe. Telling the story in a monologue format was a scathingly brilliant idea. You won't be disappointed as it moves along at a good pace. Her facial expressions are priceless.

The only problem I had with any of the content was that she included a segment on Buddhism, which doesn't require nor imply a belief in God.

Meeting her after the film was lovely. (She's actually 10 pounds thinner than she appears on film. That's a full dress size at her height.) She was called on exclaiming, "Oh, my God!" at one point and agreed that some parts of a God-filled upbringing she'd never be able to let go of.

See it. It's funny.

I suspect it will be straight to DVD. And for good reason. It's choppy and the story line is empty. Why is there a problem with Lester and the young women in his lives? Nobody really knows. It's suddenly an issue. Why is it that Dad begins dating and suddenly stops? What really prompted the change? It would have made a good Disney channel series. Fluffy, not requiring any intelligence or thought. I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the fall lineup.

The acting wasn't bad in the least. But the script was full of holes and not much character development. Every one of them was flat on both sides. The actors did a fine job and it was delightful seeing Penny Marshall on the big screen again. She reminded me of my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hustavet, in one segment. Creepy.

Sandy Tung undoubtedly did the best he could. (He's cute, in that middle aged, slightly rumpled way so many women find attractive.) I just don't think there was much substance with which to work.

Has anyone who's seen The Passion of the Christ been able to resist the urge to write a novella about their personal experience afterward? Rather than reading reviews of a movie, I'm reading reviews of people's experiences after seeing a movie. My finger hurts from having to scroll so much, so often.

The movie is excrutiatingly violent and somewhat anti-Semetic. I'm not recommending it as it's more marketing of religion than art. It certainly was neither "entertainment" nor based on much fact.

Gibson, being a man of some faith, wouldn't purposely misrepresent the role of Jews in the story of Christ's condemnation. He wouldn't take a sacred document and twist it around for his own profit, would he? Or wouldn't he?

Sadly, there will undoubtedly be a few "Christians" who will be so inflamed by the scripturally inaccurate scene in which Christ is condemned to death that they will go out and practice some good old-fashioned Jew bashing. Gibson's film is socially irresponsible in that way and, should my foreshadowing come to pass, he should be held responsible for the damage done. If not in this world, than certainly in the next.