I was expecting to cry, yes, but not put things into perspective.
Contains spoilers.
When Mack (Sam Worthington) daughter is taken he falls deep into depression, as any parent would. While his family is very religious, he loses all faith when his daughter is murdered. Closed off and distant towards his family and friends, he receives a letter from a mysterious person asking him to return to the place his daughter was taken.
When Mack arrives he is greeted by a man who takes him to a shack where Octavia Spencer’s character emerges. She introduces herself as “papa” aka God. Mack thinking he’s dreaming or lost his mind is hesitant. Another woman, a younger woman is also in the house and the three reveal that they are one, Father, Son and the holy spirit also known as the trinity.
In religion, any one I think, we always ask why. Why is this happening to me? Did I do something wrong? In Mack’s case, his daughter was a innocent child, who prayed and believed and something horrific happened to her.
Each of them had a different method of reaching Mack and what he was going through. This review was hard to write. I had to push it further and further back in posting it because it does contain one of the uncomfortable topics, one is religion and the other is politics. I didn’t know how to write it as a movie review and yet express how I reacted towards it. So I’m just going to be honest!
I respect EVERYONE’S religion, rather they believe in God or Gods or nothing at all. I was born and raised Catholic but didn’t really get into it until my late twenties…which is now. I’ve learned that even if you believe in the same thing you won’t praise it the same and that’s okay. I’m not one to watch a lot of religious movies but I had heard this one was good plus it had the guy from Avatar so I had to watch it.
Forgiveness isn’t easy, and this movie had a lot to do with it. To forgive someone doesn’t mean you accept what they did or you want to be best friends. Forgive it really for yourself. How can someone forgive someone who murdered your child? That was Mack’s ordeal. What this movie did that I never really thought of was that God loves us because we’re his children. The “good” and the evil. Like a parent who loves their child unconditionally. There’s a scene where Mack says the bad should be punished, and he is made the judge. His other children appear, and the woman whose name is Wisdom tells him one will go to Heaven and the other will go to Hell and he must choose. Mack refuses to which Wisdom tells him that each of them have done something wrong and since he believes he can do better at judging than he must choose. Mack refuses and again and begs for him to be sent to Hell instead. Wisdom than tells him that God feels the same.
Mack was in such a dark place, understandable, but it made him lose sight of his other children who were hurting as much as him as well as his wife. Grieving together leads to healing and I think the movie did a good job illustrating that. You didn’t feel compassion towards the murderer, of course. You just understand a bit of what it means to forgive and how truly powerful it is for anyone, not just for someone who has lost a child. You are entitled to grieve, be angry, be hurt, but you don’t have to carry it alone. To be that’s beautiful.
There are answers we may never know the answers to. This don’t mean life gets easier. It means you don’t have to do it alone and that it huge weight lifted off your shoulders. Now, this movie might or might not be for you and it’s cool there are a billions of other movies. I loved this movie for what it was to me and that is a movie about loss, forgiveness and faith.
We need more love in this world and if we respect each other, race, culture, religion, gender, those who hate can change. We all have issues, rather their small ones or big ones. To have something that says they will carry the weight for you and will always be there for you and love you is amazing. The Shack was a beautiful movie and I recommend it to anyone, just ask to watch it with an open mind and heart.
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