Movie Review - "The Way Home"

Great production, not-so-great plot...

“The Way Home” is a movie billed as the inspirational story of  a family in crisis.  Randy Simpkins is a man who is obviously dedicated to his work, but one day while preparing for a family holiday, he allows himself to become distracted instead of watching his son.  The movie follows the consequences of this momentary distraction.

I was impressed with the quality of this movie.  The production and acting were good enough to be invisible and let the story speak for itself.  Unfortunately I couldn’t see enough in this story to warrant the making of an entire movie.  I felt it was a story that was far from unique, and hence a little boring.  At the end of the movie, there is some written information telling the viewer that Randy Simpkins changed his life around quite dramatically from this day forward.  I must suppose that this is the inspiration that prompted the movie-makers to go with this story.  But from my point of view that movie didn’t portray the powerful nature of such a life change.  Maybe if we had seen a wider period of time instead of just one day this might have been achieved?

I still rate this movie 3 stars for the great acting and production.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Book Review - The Vertical Self by Mark Sayers

‘The Vertical Self’ was an insightful read.  Sayers dissection of past and present culture was fascinating.  He points out that in our current culture, our self-image is often derived from many influences around us (creating the ‘horizontal self’).  This is in opposition to the Christian ideal of deriving our worth, value and self-image from God (the ‘vertical self’). 

For me the highlight of the book was the 2 chapters about ‘sexy’ and ‘cool’.  Sayers presents the history and development of these 2  [false] images.

The final 3 chapters (out of 11) are where Sayers adds more depth to the idea of finding your ‘horizontal self’.  As I was reading through these chapters, I enjoyed Sayers’ reflections immensely.  He writes well, and there was so much to think through about what he has written.  I enjoyed his ideas on ‘life as a movie script’ and the bar code mentality.  I am sure, though, that I will have to read this book again because I found myself struggling to grasp the big picture of what Sayers was saying. Maybe this was because chapter ten was too long? Fifty odd pages felt really long when all the other chapters are between 3 and 24 pages long.

One thing I had difficulty with in this book is the language and terminology used.  In chapter 1, Sayers questions current phrases we hear like ‘find himself’, ‘grounded, and ‘centred’.  Sayers points out how baffling this can be, but I found his last 3 chapters, with phrases like ‘find your true self’, at times to be just as baffling.  Maybe this is a sign that I’m a whole lot older than the intended audience.

I would recommend ‘The Vertical Self’ to any Christian interested in the interaction between culture and faith. Four out of 5 stars from me.

I must disclose that Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My first post!!

This is my blog. I want to use this as a place to post reviews of books that I have read.