"Marriage Is for Life"
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What You Need To Know:
Most of NO GREATER LOVE is very well done. Some of it, however, drags. That said, the movie is poignant and thought provoking. The issues involved are very important. The evangelistic moments raise real questions. The production quality is good, and the acting is very good. NO GREATER LOVE has great potential. With a little tweaking, it could have been great. As it is, it is worth watching and deserves commendation.
Content:
(CCC, BB, L, V, A, DD, M) Very overt Christian worldview with several evangelistic moments and strong moral perspective; two light obscenities; domestic fight but no violence shown; no sex; no nudity; alcoholism rebuked; drug use rebuked; and, workaholism and anger.
More Detail:
NO GREATER LOVE opens on a domestic battle between Jeff and his very pregnant wife, Heather. Quick shots show her becoming a depressed alcoholic and drug addict and leaving Jeff and their son, Ethan.
Ten years later, Jeff has moved to Miami and is dating his real estate agent, Katie. His best friend, Bob, is trying to get him to go to church. He gets Jeff to put Ethan into a summer youth camp. Jeff is wrestling with whether to marry Katie, who loves both Jeff and Ethan. Heather is one of the counselors at the summer camp. When Jeff finds out, his life is turned inside out. He is angry and resentful she left him. He wants to know she didn’t contact him. And, now that she’s a Christian, she cannot move in with him unless he comes to Christ.
Ethan, meanwhile, likes church, loves his mother, whom he just met, and is torn between the two parents.
Most of NO GREATER LOVE is very well done. Some of it, however, drags because the plot loses its jeopardy and gets too involved in didactic discussions of evangelism, faith and church. These elements are important to the story, and should be commended, but they have not been woven into the plot in such a way that moves the story forward. In fact, at one point, one reviewer commented, “This is just like real church.” Cinema verite does not work. Movies are constructs. As Cecil B. Demille says, you can say anything as long as you keep the audience entertained.
That said, the movie is poignant and thought provoking. The issues involved are very important. The evangelistic moments will raise real questions in the viewer’s mind. The production quality is good, and the acting is very good at most times, especially Ethan, the young boy. NO GREATER LOVE has great potential. With a little tweaking, it could have been great. As it is, it is worth watching and deserves commendation.
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