There have been quite a few "faith" oriented films to come out this year, including the excellent Noah but also quite a few terrible Christian films: God's Not Dead, Heaven is For Real, Mom's Night Out, Son of God. And coming this fall: Left Behind, Nicolas Cage style. Thankfully there have been several really excellent "secular" films that have either directly or indirectly explored Christianity, God, faith and morality, and I've had the pleasure of reviewing several of them for Christianity Today:
Locke (dir. Steven Knight): Full review. Excerpt:
As the film progresses we realize, as Locke does, that as much as we desire full control, there will always be things outside of our power. Men want to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They want to earn it. But sometimes being a man means embracing one's limits, humbling yourself, and accepting the reality of a higher sovereignty.
The best moments in Locke are the brief glimpses we get of the man's vulnerability. They are few and far between, but thanks to the film's close-up camerawork and Hardy's astonishing performance, we can't miss them. They reminded me of epiphanies in other films where the "I've got it all under control" man comes to a humble awareness of his own limitation: the final moments of All is Lost; the "I wanted to be loved because I'm great" moment in The Tree of Life when Brad Pitt concludes, "I'm nothing."
These are moments of grace. They are moments when the reality becomes clear that "self-made" can only go so far, that we can never truly survive on our own, and that that's a good thing. We need grace. And while grace cannot be earned and must accepted from a humble posture, grace is not opposed to effort, as Dallas Willard says.
The Immigrant (dir. James Gray). Full review. Excerpt:
When Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix) gets arrested and briefly jailed midway through the film, one of his other prostitutes laments to Ewa that "we are nothing without him." Ewa (Marion Cotillard) emphatically replies, "I am not nothing." Even the most depraved and lowly creatures have dignity, Ewa's faith leads her to believe, and she sees this in people even when they themselves do not. When Bruno is at his lowest moment and says "I'm nothing," Ewa repeats her earlier comment, but this time to him: "You are not nothing."
Both Emil (Jeremy Renner) and (in the film's closing moments) Bruno appear at times to be Christ figures of sorts. Yet it is Ewa herself who ultimately presents the film's best picture of Christ-like love and sacrifice. Everything she does in the film is not for herself, but for the sake of her sister. She lays aside her innocence and opens herself to the profoundest humiliation, so as to liberate her imprisoned sister. It's an imperfect parallel to be sure, but Ewa's journey reminds me a bit of what Paul says of Christ in Galatians 5:21: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us."
Christ, of course, went further. Unlike Ewa, who grasps on to her belief that "I am not nothing," Christ relinquished all claim to pride and status (Philippians 2:6-8) and became "nothing" on a cross, for our sake. God vindicated Christ's humility by exalting him to the highest place (Philippians 2:9-11).
Other recent films I recommend that deal with matters of faith, God, and morality: Ida (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski) and Night Moves (dir. Kelley Reichardt).