The Case for Christ is God’s Not Dead during the Reagan Era. Adapting the Lee Strobel book into a feature film, Pure Flix uses their surprising grosses and probably growing budget to place credible actors and actresses around very reasonable period piece detail. However, the message and storytelling is still a house of cards, reminding you constantly how important Jesus is to your personal happiness, heathens.
Lee Strobel (Mike Vogel) didn’t just start out as a born again Christian. In 1980 he was an atheist journalist for the Chicago Tribune, and a good one: the movie opens with his promotion. At the dinner celebration, his daughter almost dies choking, but is saved by Alfie (L. Scott Caldwell), a nurse who says she came there because Jesus told her to. Lee shrugs this as coincidence, but his wife Leslie (Erika Christensen) is intrigued and starts exploring Christianity via church, bible study, etc. Lee is freaked out by this new development, and attempts to prove Jesus was never resurrected from the dead. His journey through various world religious experts, an ongoing case, and fellow journalists and confidants leads to some unexpected revelations that Lee struggles to grasp.
Pure Flix’s earlier Deadless God efforts were more about message than professional moviemaking. Stars from mediocre 90s TV sitcoms lead the movies, and overact the hell out of them to get the point across in basic sets that lack any reality. The creative forces behind the Case for Christ push the professionalism more toward something Hollywood might consider in the future. The period stuff is mostly well executed; the funny 80s glasses, mustaches, early computers, cool cars, and Schlitz made me think someone was paying attention. The movie also boasts solid character actors for leads (Erika Christensen, Mike Vogel) and bit parts (Mike Pniewski, Brett Rice, Robert Forster(!) and Faye Dunaway (!!!!!)) alike, so when Lee and Leslie argue, their arguments evolve and are complex as delivered by a credible actor. More importantly, the story feels less like a Pentecostal preacher wrote the story. In fact, though they missed it a bit, the meat of the story is an intriguing one: what happens when your spouse becomes religious? How does a marriage negotiate such a drastic life change like that? These questions fuel the best parts of the Case for Christ, and leave me hopeful that this is just attempt 2.0 and we get some real genuine character studies of born-again Christians in the future.
But we’re not quite there yet. If God’s Not Dead was a preacher screaming at you to believe in Jesus, The Case for Christ is politely condescendingly saying it to you in a normal voice. Lee reacts to his wife’s conversion like a pissed off whiny baby, instantly getting on a high horse, a phony moment of many. This guy clearly loves his wife, so you’d think he’d at least try to listen before being an instadouche. Mike Vogel does his best to sell this stuff, but the writing betrays Lee’s journey constantly, leaving his revelation at the end to feel false and unearned. The worst sin of this film is in Lee’s research on Jesus’s resurrection. A real film would have showed us better how this information was eating away at all of Lee’s barriers, leading to a resounding conclusion where he changes his mind. The Case For Christ spends all its time explaining why Lee’s doubts are unfounded instead of showing us. As a result, the audience is trying to piece it together too, but the dialogue goes so fast that we forget and just move on, and as a result, stop caring about our hero’s quest for knowledge. That quest is critical to the story’s success and its botched execution leaves The Case For Christ in a hung jury situation, with each side of the Jesus debate digging in instead of making everyone think a little.
However, like with Jesus, I have faith in Pure Flix. The Case for Christ is a grown-up movie, made by grown-up talented people. The film company has proven with bigger budgets, it can make its material more watchable and artistic. We’ll see where this goes but like Lee Strobel, sometimes the evidence is enough to just take a mini leap of faith; don’t let me down, Pure Flix.