Posted By Madeline Oden on Sep 14, 2017
The movie “All Saints” is a PG Christian film that was released on Aug. 25. The movie wasn’t heavily advertised before its release. Despite this, Rotten Tomatoes rated this movie as 93 percent fresh, and my personal rating would be a 7.5 out of 10 stars. The film runs for an hour and 48 minutes and includes footage of the congregation that the story is based on in the credits.
The film centers around Michael Spurlock, who decides to trade in his corporate sales career to become a pastor. Unfortunately, his first assignment in his sales career is to close a country church and sell the prime piece of land where it sits. He soon has a change of heart when the church starts to welcome refugees from Burma. Spurlock now finds himself working with the refugees to turn the land into a working farm to pay the church’s bills.
The movie is based in Smyrna, Tennessee and the movie was filmed in the same church. This movie is based on the true story of this Episcopal Church. History versus Hollywood even did a comparison of the two stories and concluded that there were only minor tweaks.
While the movie isn’t a fast-paced action adventure or a slow and steady romantic comedy, it still has plenty of potential. The movie goes at a well-paced speed and has a straightforward plot.
The movie gives each character enough screen time for the audience to know their role in the church and a little about their past. We know enough about everyone to understand their lives without needing a long backstory. It was the perfect amount of information to know these characters and feel empathy for them.
I thought the actors did a splendid job. John Corbett played Michael Spurlock, and I believe he did a good job showing the emotional and physical struggles the real pastor went through trying to keep this tiny church afloat.
Watching Nelson Lee portray Ye Win, the main refugee who seeks the church’s help, was inspiring. These actors helped make these characters feel as if this struggle was happening to the audience as well, and I believe it made the movie more enjoyable to watch.
One thing I thought was cool was how the movie brought back the refugees and put them in the movie. They played themselves. Those are not extras. Those are the people this story happened to.
In the movie, Atticus Spurlock (played by Myles Moore) becomes friends with one of the children refugees named Po (played by John Wise Win). However, the real Po is somewhere in the background and the boy playing Po is Ye Win’s son in real life.
I thought it was admirable that they offered these men and women a chance to play themselves in the movie that was telling their story.
One other thing that I thought was well done was the fact that it discusses religion but doesn’t focus solely on that.
It revolves more around the community in a religion and how we are all a part of God’s plan. It brings up a lot of good questions about God’s plan for each of us and how we don’t know exactly what He has planned.
If you are looking for a movie that will inspire some thought but is still fun and easy to talk about with friends and family, I believe this movie is a good one to watch. It is truly an inspiring story and a great movie.
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