Conversations with God
| Year: | 2006 |
| Production Co: | CWG Productions LLC |
| Director: | Stephen Simon |
| Producer: | Stephen Simon |
| Writer: | Neale Donald Walshe |
| Cast: | Henry Czerny |
A bit of an Oprah moment, this one. I'm not sure what I thought it would be like but I liked the look of it when I saw the trailer.
We meet a rich, successful writer on stage on the lecture circuit, talking about how God speaking to him changed his life.
Cut to the same guy in a normal job whose life falls apart in a car accident when he breaks his neck, can't find work, and ends up living in a dumpy camp ground with a bunch of hobos who scrounge food out of skips.
We see lots of milestones such as him hitting his lowest point, eating a hamburger out of a garbage bin with a little kid staring in horrified fascination before its mother shoos it away, finding friendship among the trash and realising the homeless around him are people too, someone finally taking a chance of him and giving a job that lets him start to scrape his way up, etc, etc.
Then for no apparent reason, and one that's never explained, a disembodied voice claiming to be God starts speaking to him. He writes it all down and makes it into a book that makes him a millionaire, hence his journey.
It seems to have a hundred points but little to say. Plot streams are flabby and ill-defined, not really leading to any meaningful conclusion. Based on the best selling book, I got the feeling there was a lot more to the story the film left out, to the detriment of people who hadn't read the book.
Everything about the film screams 'issues movie', but it doesn't know what to do with the issues. Other than that it's acted, directed and dressed like a fairly cheap midday movie.
We meet a rich, successful writer on stage on the lecture circuit, talking about how God speaking to him changed his life.
Cut to the same guy in a normal job whose life falls apart in a car accident when he breaks his neck, can't find work, and ends up living in a dumpy camp ground with a bunch of hobos who scrounge food out of skips.
We see lots of milestones such as him hitting his lowest point, eating a hamburger out of a garbage bin with a little kid staring in horrified fascination before its mother shoos it away, finding friendship among the trash and realising the homeless around him are people too, someone finally taking a chance of him and giving a job that lets him start to scrape his way up, etc, etc.
Then for no apparent reason, and one that's never explained, a disembodied voice claiming to be God starts speaking to him. He writes it all down and makes it into a book that makes him a millionaire, hence his journey.
It seems to have a hundred points but little to say. Plot streams are flabby and ill-defined, not really leading to any meaningful conclusion. Based on the best selling book, I got the feeling there was a lot more to the story the film left out, to the detriment of people who hadn't read the book.
Everything about the film screams 'issues movie', but it doesn't know what to do with the issues. Other than that it's acted, directed and dressed like a fairly cheap midday movie.