FAITH OF ANGELS

FAITH OF ANGELS is a drama streaming on Great American Family that shines a Biblical light on the actual events of September 1989, when a boy named Josh Dennis was lost for five days in Hidden Treasure Mines, Utah. Josh wants to live a life of faith, not fear, so when he has the opportunity to explore a dark mine on a camping trip with older boys, he gets permission from his dad to seize it. Unfortunately, Mr. Dennis is left to grapple with the consequences of that permission when the group returns without Josh, who becomes lost in the dark.

The apprehensive Sheriff Proctor, beleaguered Dennis family, and local search-and-rescue experts are united in a desperate desire to find Josh before it’s too late. However, as time passes without food or water, the community that rallies around Hidden Treasure Mines to recover the missing child begins to lose hope. Even John Skinner, a local historian who begins hearing voices prompting him to help find Josh, must wrestle with the question: Can the rescuers keep their faith in the unseen long enough to witness a miracle?

FAITH OF ANGELS has the benefit of being based on a true story, and the premise of being lost in a pitch-black mine pair excellently with the theme of trusting what you can’t see. Darkness is embraced in many movie scenes, with just enough lighting to leave audiences peering at their screens, immersed in a scene where sight would be a relief. The movie uses clever flashback scenes to Josh’s family life to illuminate his more hopeful moments while he’s trapped, too. However engaging the setting is, both the acting and the writing it rests on is hit-or-miss. While Kirby Heyborne and John Michael Finley’s performances stand out in scenes featuring intense stress or grief, they fall flat whenever a scene calls for more subtle emotions.

Some narrative parts of FAITH OF ANGELS fail to make an impact simply because of a lack of follow-through or even some internal contradictions. For example, one character is portrayed as deaf in one ear when spoken to at a close distance but is inexplicably able to hear and respond to a tense argument from many feet away in a later scene. A teenage character is also repeatedly characterized as seeing no purpose in life during the early moments. Yet, the topic of “purpose” is never re-addressed or resolved in the movie, which makes the lack of mention of Jesus Christ even more noticeable.

Even the emphasis that the story itself muddies FAITH OF ANGELS places on the importance of faith. For example, in one scene, John encourages a worried Sheriff to consider evidence to decide rather than acting out of fear. However, the movie shows audiences that John himself only enters the mines and succeeds in his mission by trusting nothing more than a gut feeling and ignoring the evidence that Josh may be gone forever.

FAITH OF ANGELS does present a strong Biblical worldview. Although it never mentions the name of Christ, God is addressed positively in the characters’ prayers, church services, and conversations throughout the movie. One stand-out scene includes the Dennis family Bible study; when Josh’s mother claims that faith can’t make you fly, he respectfully asks her to read Matthew 17:20-21, insisting that “Scripture doesn’t lie.”

Despite these Biblical worldview elements, some anti-Biblical elements are mixed in, too. For example, John Skinner follows voices only he can hear, prompting him to help Josh, but his early guesses that the voice may be “ancestors from beyond” are never proven false. Heroes experience the help of what they call “angels” and “ghosts.” However, these figures are portrayed as the same elderly people later shown in the Dennis home’s family photographs, suggesting that the help came from deceased ancestors.

There may be a strong Biblical worldview overall. However, because the Bible states that the dead do not return to the natural world as ghosts nor angels in passages like Luke 16:20-31 and Hebrews 9:27, FAITH OF ANGELS has some anti-biblical elements mixed in. Though FAITH OF ANGELS hints at faith in God, it shows audiences faith in ultimately vague, benevolent visitors that look like deceased ancestors. Because of these questionable elements, MOVIEGUIDE advises caution for younger children.