Film takes honest look at faith in suffering

One of the encouraging things about the mini-renaissance (in box office results, if not always in quality) faith-based films have enjoyed of late is the variety increasingly available to audiences. More than just the headline-making films like War Room and God’s Not Dead, the past year has brought us swashbuckling Christan-historical adventure movies like Beyond the Mask, megachurch satires like Believe Me, and evangelical comedies like Mom’s’ Night Out. You may have to hunt to find these films in a theater, but thanks to Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, and other online resources, off-beat has never been more accessible.

While not all of the above-mentioned efforts were wholly successful, they prove that religious filmmakers are branching out—finding new tones, structure, and subject matter for their story-telling. One noteworthy new entry to this trend is Just Let Go, a Mormon drama that tells the true story of Chris Williams, whose wife, daughter, son, and unborn baby were killed in a car accident with a drunk teen driver.

What 15 years ago might have been a message movie with a capital “M” instead becomes a quiet contemplation on living out religious doctrine in the midst of deep, almost-unimaginable suffering. With a phenomenal Henry Ian Cusick (best known as Desmond on Lost) in the lead role, the elegiac tone of Just Let Go is at times overly slow, and the flashback shots can start to feel repetitive. But they serve to bring us quietly into Chris’ pain. He has moments of screaming anger, but mostly he just seems numb and confused about how to behave in the midst of such public loss. His remaining family and the prosecuting attorney want a justice that is at odds with Chris’ beliefs—what is his faith worth if he fails to display it in the worst of trials?

Just Let Go’s Mormon background and understated approach will present problems for some, but the movie doesn’t argue for Mormonism in any way (in fact, until I read related news stories about it, I didn’t know it had Mormon origins. The movie’s only religious references come straight from the Bible). And it treats Chris’ subtle internal conflicts in a more realistic way than many Christian films dealing with similar subject matter, arguing for the merit of approaching stories with an eye for authenticity rather than imparting a lesson.

Perhaps this is what drew contemporary Christian singer and worship pastor Lincoln Brewer to host and provide commentary for the premiere of the movie in conjunction with Fathom Events, which hosted similar events for the Kirk Cameron documentary Unstoppable. Just Let Go debuted in select theaters Monday night.

Editor’s note: This review has been edited to reflect that the movie is based on the story of a man who is a member of the Mormon church.