God's Compass

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source: God's Compass

This is a great movie about what can happen when people start trusting in and showing respect for each other. We're not perfect, but as long as we try our best.. even if later rather than sooner.. to do the right thing, things will eventually work out. Not in our time but God's time. This movie is very emotional and powerful. I cried a few times.

I'm all about plot and story and this film had the potential of being a hit in these areas with all that is introduced into the movie, but unfortunately most of this potential is just never realized. For example, I'm still not sure what the star's retirement from a school had to do with anything, but it would have been nice if that was developed more. And as mentioned by another reviewer, the name of the movie seems not to fit, but that's because they never really explained God's compass in the storyline. Sure, we knew the lead's husband liked boats and he had compasses and she talked about God leading us in the right direction, but because it was the title, it needed MORE. Perhaps those connecting scenes were left on the cutting room floor. Also, I'm not sure why both reviewers thought the acting was good. Yes, the lead, Karen Ambercrombie, was amazing. And the juvenile delinquent she cares for, Joey Ibanez, fit the part perfectly, but almost everyone else was various degrees of not quite realistic to just plain awful. For instance, Jessica (Jazelle Foster) is laughing and happy in the car when they come across her husband and Eli (Ibanez) looking for Eli's sister. Why it doesn't work is because even though her recently born child is doing better, he is still in the hospital in neonatal care. I'm not saying this movie isn't worth watching, I'm just saying that I know it could have been so much better, but it almost had a low budget feel. For instance, the sound seemed a bit off in a few places. Not even close to War Room.

I enjoy watching faith-based movies and how they come together. In this case, I get the title. It was like a full circle and GOD directing them all back together again even though they never actually met. I did have two issues: 1) why didn't the lady call the police once the child showed up at her door with no adults; that child has been missing for a week; 2) I am very particular when people touch raw meat and don't wash their hands before touching someone or something else. Eww. With that said, it was a great movie and shows GOD will allow those some people would look down upon and use them as "angels." Eli had one thing in mind, but GOD had something else.

So this kid "steals" this car...but he doesn't. The lady he was carjacking was in labor so he transports her to the hospital. He even takes her INSIDE. There's a cop just standing around and he takes off after the kid and arrests him for car theft and he goes to a maximum-security prison. The kicker, the lady in labor hasn't pressed charges, so guess what? There would be NO reason to arrest him. If anything, the kid saved her life by getting her to the hospital. The baby's born and it's premi and sick. The lady's husband is a doctor and a bit of a dick, then he's magically not after the baby's magically better. I mean seriously, this is just stupid.

This movie is brilliantly acted and had me glued to the screen from beginning to end. Never loose faith no matter what happens in life. The challenges we have to face in life often seem unbearable but they all make sense in the end. Hang in there, you are not alone, we are all connected and everything happens for a reason!

Plot Contrivance: A way to move the plot forward without having to use reason or sense. An example could be a co-incidence, lazy writing or a deus ex machina. Like most religious type movies out there, "God's Compass" relies on the message carrying the movie instead of things like good writing, good acting or a coherent script. If the message is good then people will see it and say that all those things are there and it's amazing and you really ought to go see it without actually giving things a second thought. The problem is this movie is lazy. It wants to spoon feed you everything and come up with situations that honestly make no sense what so ever. The basic plot is simple enough. You have a family with problems, the mother is pregnant, the father is too committed to his job and the grandmother is a busybody. Enter Eli, the young car thief that hijacks the mother's car. Except not really. It's a plot contrivance to get him into the movie. It complicated but she goes into labor while he's doing this and he drives her to the hospital, the same hospital her husband works for as a surgeon. At least he's supposed to be a surgeon but strangely enough winds up doing other things there. Again, plot contrivance to show he puts his job ahead of his wife. However a cop, who just hangs around in the lobby immediately chases and arrests Eli. Again, plot contrivance because he hasn't been accused of any crime. Had the mother said he stole her car or maybe he had a record or something but no. He's chased into the parking lot for no reason, cuffed and immediately sent to prison. Not jail, prison. Maybe the writers ought to check how the law works before trying to write about it? But the busybody grandmother decides to help the young man out and bails him out of prison for... reasons. Actually no real reason is given but they have to set this up for, say it with me, plot contrivance. Trust me, there's a lot more here. The father. He is the reason your wife is in the hospital with your baby. Personally if I were him I'd be on my knees thanking him for helping. But he needs to be a jerk about it so later on they can bond and have it be a learning experience because, you guessed it, plot contrivance. Now Eli isn't a bad kid because he has a young sister that he's taking care of because their parents died. Say it with me, plot contrivance. The grandmother's husband and the father's father was saved because Eli's dad was an organ donor and his kidney saved his life. Plot contrivance. They go looking for the young girl and where do they find her? In the very house they grew up in. Plot contrivance. Plot contrivance. Plot contrivance. Eili and his sister are adopted and everybody is happy. The end. This is such lazy writing that it feels like they had a bunch of ideas in a hat and simply drew a card every time something needed to be fit in and didn't care if it didn't make sense. But as I said, to the already converted this is nothing less than a great movie with a great message and nothing else matters. To anybody else it's a hot mess of poorly thought out ideas designed to tell a story that in better hands could have been much better.

This movie will become a new Christian favorite, with excellent acting, good direction, excellent cinematography. The main characters are a couple of Christian film favorites: Karen Abercrombie and TC Stallings, from The War Room. There is also an appearance by Robert Amaya, whom you'll remember from Courageous. Its a well-made film about a family going through some tough issues, you feel like you're in there with them, going through what they're going through. What I really loved about this film is it gives you a little miracle - not a big one, but a little one - just miracle enough for the characters in the story to know that God's hand is in this.