GRACE BY NIGHT

Name: GRACE BY NIGHT
Item: GRACE BY NIGHT
Author: Review

"No One Is Beyond God’s Grace and Love"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

GRACE BY NIGHT is a faith-centered sports drama starring Antonio Sabato Jr as Jon, a crisis hotline responder. After his own family tragedy, Jon helps others dealing with suicidal thoughts, drug addiction and abuse. Jon forms a friendship with one caller, a troubled high school student named Calvin. After seeing Calvin’s love for wrestling, Jon agrees to be his coach and pay for all the gear. Sadly, Calvin is involved with a local gang, and Jon’s dealing with his own grief. Will Jon be able to help Calvin and himself?

GRACE BY NIGHT sags a bit in the middle. However, it tells a powerful story about God’s love, redemptive power, and the importance of faith. Jon and Calvin eventually realize true strength and perseverance comes from faith. No matter what you’ve done, or how old you are, no one’s beyond God’s grace and love. GRACE BY NIGHT has several intense scenes dealing with themes like attempted suicide, a school shooter, drug overdoses, and alcohol abuse. Also, some blood is shown after a man is shot. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for younger viewers.

Content:

(CCC, BBB, VV, AA, DD):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Christian, moral worldview stresses God’s grace and redemptive power, despite sin and/or difficult circumstances, the movie shows that no one is beyond the love of God, other Christian, moral elements displayed include the importance of marriage and fatherhood, perseverance through trials, faith in God, and loving people regardless of their race, age or circumstances, plus other explicit Christian elements such as a priest praying, a man has a cross necklace and a crucifix on his wall, and a man reads the bible to an inmate;

Foul Language:

No foul language;

Violence:

There are many violent situations while a man responds to crisis calls such as a woman holding a gun to her head, and a woman who overdoses on drugs, and abusive father throws bottles at his son, plus a gang member shoots a man in the stomach (blood is shown briefly), a boy is bullied due to his skin color, gang members beat a boy until he is bleeding from his head and lip, characters talk about death and grief throughout the movie, a man’s son commits suicide off screen, and another character loses their young daughter to cancer;

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

Upper male nudity in a shower and also while wrestling;

Alcohol Use:

Heavy alcohol use throughout, depictions of drunkenness and drinking from the bottle, several scenes imply drunk driving;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking, but a woman is addicted to drugs and overdoses in one scene; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Nothing else objectionable.

More Detail:

GRACE BY NIGHT is an exciting faith-centered movie showing how no one’s beyond God’s redemption and love in their life.

The movie follows a crisis hotline operator named Jon, played by Antonio Sabato, Jr. Jon is no stranger to the pain and harsh reality of life. In a small town in Alabama, Jon responds to calls from abuse victims, drug overdoses and even those who want to commit suicide.

One night Jon receives a Crisis call from a high school student who is dealing with the abuse from his alcoholic father. Jon responds to the call and forms a quick bond with the young man, whose name is Calvin.

Jon knows Calvin is involved with a gang, but he offers him to stay at his house as long as he stays out of trouble. Calvin loves wrestling but has no money to buy the necessary equipment to play at a high level. Jon agrees to become Calvin’s wrestling coach, buying him a pair of shoes and training him to make the school team.

Sadly, though, Jon has his own struggles. Behind Jon’s motivation to help other people is the tragic reality of his own son’s death and the alcoholism that ensued. Despite Jon’s struggles, he continues to ask questions about faith, sees the good in others, and wonders if he’s too far gone to put his trust in Jesus.

After tensions come to a breaking point in Calvin’s life, Jon sees no easy way forward. Only by God’s grace and the support of each other will Jon and Calvin be able to overcome their circumstances.

Directed by Nathan Leon, GRACE BY NIGHT, is a powerful movie with strong messages of redemption, perseverance and faith. Life is shown as a struggle in great detail. Jon battles with alcoholism, grief over his son’s death, and a difficult job where struggle and pain are his reality. The good news is that, although the movie doesn’t shy away from showing the life’s hardships, it also never fails to highlight God’s love, the power of forgiveness, and the importance of faith someone outside of ourselves.

The story in GRACE BY NIGHT is told superbly and powerfully. The wrestling scenes are exciting and intense. They will keep viewers captivated from start to finish. The wrestling scenes also have outstanding production values. That said, GRACE BY NIGHT has some pacing issues toward the middle. Eventually, however, the movie’s dramatic story and superb acting push it to a satisfying, redemptive conclusion.

Faith is central to this harrowing story of perseverance, redemption and love. However, Movieguide does advise caution for younger audiences as it does contain some realistic violence and other intense crisis scenes like the intervention of an attempted suicide, a drug overdose, and the intervention of an attempted school shooting. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for younger viewers.