I drew attention to the film "The Shack" because of its actor Sam Worthington whom I saw in the TV series "Manhunt: Unabomber."
Stuart Hazeldine is the director. Before "The Shack", he shot just one short film "Christian" and the film "Exam". I haven't seen any of his works so I can't express my opinion with him.
Thirteen-year-old Mackenzie "Mack" Phillips grows up in a dysfunctional family. His father is an alcoholic. He beats him and his mother. One day the boy walked by a neighbor (Octavia Spencer) who advised him to turn to God and during the Sunday sermon, Mack confesses to the pastor that his father is beating him. But salvation did not come. That evening, his father terribly beat him again and makes him repeat the quote from Bible:
Colossians 3:20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
In a moment, we are transported for several years ahead. Mack is already a grown man, married and has three children. His wife is a deep-rooted woman, but Mack goes to church just because it's so necessary to her.
One day Mack with the children goes to rest on the lake. His youngest daughter disappears while he saves his drowning son.
Time passed, his daughter was never found. Mack gets a strange letter from ... God? Or the kidnapper of his daughter? Mack goes to the meeting and meets God. Mack wants to ask the main question: "If God loves him so much, as written in Bible, then why did he deprive Mack of his daughter?".
The beginning of the film is quite interesting and intriguing, but then the conversations with God begin and all goes awry. I'll explain why the film seemed weak to me although it had an excellent potential. The theme of God, heaven, hell is always interesting. The same movie "What Dreams May Come" was very famously filmed!
So,
A family. Mack's depth of depression from the loss of his daughter is off the charts. He gradually broke up relations with his family, forgetting that they also suffer. Mack blames himself because of the kidnapping of his daughter. He is the only culprit. It is not known how much time has passed since the disappearance of the girl, but her mother has absolutely no grief on her face. She's like their neighbor, who comes to visit Mack and say a couple of warm words. I absolutely did not feel that at least someone cares about the loss of a child, except for the father.
The duration of the film is about 2 hours and 12 minutes and it is divided into 2 parts: ordinary life and the loss of the child, and the remaining 85% of the time - conversations with God, monologues, questions, answers, reflections. The first part should set me up and bring me into a melancholic mood with shades of depression. I had to sympathize with their stories and the final part of the search for the girl was supposed to break me but it did not happen because they showed everything very quickly. Have you stolen a child? Well, it's time to go to heaven. That's it.
Conversations with God also came down to common phrases. If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other one also. And all in the same spirit. I did not catch the protagonist inner crisis and could not feel his subsequent transformation and acceptance of himself and faith. Everything turned out too superficial. Such a feeling was created that they all talked just to talk.
In fact, the idea of the film is great but the director couldn't touch the hearts of the audience. The film will be able to penetrate those who are in the same situation as the protagonist, but only because their nerves are tense, like a string and because of any association, it becomes difficult for them.
The film collected negative reviews from critics, although it paid off at the box office. With a budget of $ 20 million, The Shack box office is $ 96 million.
IMDb 5,2// Metacritic 32// Rotten Tomatoes 21%
