Tag: The War Room

I had an opportunity to see an advance screening of War Room, the latest faith-based movie from FaithStep Films and Affirm Films.

I’ve said before that I’m highly critical of “Christian” movies because they’re often either saccharine or preachy. There’s plenty of preaching in War Room, but it’s mostly from an elderly woman as she’s mentoring a younger woman or praising God for answered prayer. There’s nothing saccharine about the movie either. I really enjoyed it.

It’s the story of a successful couple. Successful on the outside. They have a beautiful home, a great daughter, good jobs. But they’ve lost their way as a family. When the wife gets a new listing for her real estate business, the seller challenges her to pray for her husband and family in a “war room,” also known as a prayer closet.

This is the best film so far, in my opinion, from FaithStep. Each of their films boasts better acting and production values and the partnership with Affirm Films (a Sony company) has only helped.

T.C. Stallings, actor in Courageous and former pro footballer player, is Tony Jordan. He’s vain and selfish as the story opens. Priscilla Shirer is his wife Jennifer. This is Priscilla’s first movie role and I thought she was excellent. Tony is … slick, is the best word I can think of. He’s attractive and charming and he uses both qualities to his own advantage. He’s also angry and driven by money. When Jennifer begins to pray for him, neither of them are prepared for how God answers her prayer.

Karen Abercrombie is Miss Clara, the older woman teaching Jennifer about the power of prayer and the name of Jesus.

Karen is considerably younger than Miss Clara, but she embodied the role and I believed she was elderly until I looked up her credits on IMDB.

I’m not quite sure why Beth Moore is billed as a “lead.” She has two to three lines in one very short scene (by the time I nudged Stud Muffin and said, “That’s Beth Moore!” she had one line left and the scene was over) and no lines at all in her second scene. If the billing is an overt attempt to get some Beth-loving women into theater seats, I’ll hazard two opinions: 1) Those women are going to feel cheated and they will be vocal about the bait and switch. And 2) it’s not necessary. This is a strong movie and it deserves to be seen on its own merits.

Overall, I loved this film and give it a “Should See” rating.