UnPlanned: An Unexpected Review
A friend encouraged me to go see this film last night. I was familiar with the story, and I'm glad I went, at least so I can speak of it from intelligence.
I am ambivalent about the film. As Christian movies go, it was pretty good in production values and evenhanded treatment of the different sides. Everyone who works at PP is not shown as a monster, but as a normal person doing a "job." Some of the prolifers are portrayed as jerks, as they are. The characters occasionally swear. Most of the acting is quite good. And the abortion scenes are tough to watch. It's not great, but as one critic said, it's competent story telling.
On the other hand, there's some flaws.
1. Don't go expecting a presentation of the gospel. Jesus does not appear in this film. The villain is Planned Parenthood, the salvation pro-life movement.
2. After the dramatic conversion to the pro-life position and resigning the clinic, the sense of time is lost; it seems like her life changes super dramatically overnight.
3. At one point I said, audibly, to my friend, Her husband is an idiot. The man marries a woman who pushes the killing of the unborn despite claiming to be prolife and that he disagrees with what she does. They live together and he puts up with it for years, including her lying to people and their child. I conclude a. he has no spine or b. he likes the money she makes (which probably was good) more than his convictions. Perhaps it's good that he stood by her through it all; I have to wonder if he would have saved everyone some grief if he had set his foot down.
4. She works there for ten years but never sees what really happens in an abortion. That is hard to believe. The compartmentalization this film portrays is astounding. It comes across that her being embarrassed by the mean director of PP in Houston was as much a factor as the truth about abortion.
5. She admits to being complicit in 22,000 abortions and her husband says, "God will forgive you." Cheap grace, anyone?
6. The My Pillow guy at the end took me out of the story. (My friend said he put up some of the money, so I guess they gave him a part.)
That said, it's worth seeing, although $11 at my local theater was a shocker.
I am ambivalent about the film. As Christian movies go, it was pretty good in production values and evenhanded treatment of the different sides. Everyone who works at PP is not shown as a monster, but as a normal person doing a "job." Some of the prolifers are portrayed as jerks, as they are. The characters occasionally swear. Most of the acting is quite good. And the abortion scenes are tough to watch. It's not great, but as one critic said, it's competent story telling.
On the other hand, there's some flaws.
1. Don't go expecting a presentation of the gospel. Jesus does not appear in this film. The villain is Planned Parenthood, the salvation pro-life movement.
2. After the dramatic conversion to the pro-life position and resigning the clinic, the sense of time is lost; it seems like her life changes super dramatically overnight.
3. At one point I said, audibly, to my friend, Her husband is an idiot. The man marries a woman who pushes the killing of the unborn despite claiming to be prolife and that he disagrees with what she does. They live together and he puts up with it for years, including her lying to people and their child. I conclude a. he has no spine or b. he likes the money she makes (which probably was good) more than his convictions. Perhaps it's good that he stood by her through it all; I have to wonder if he would have saved everyone some grief if he had set his foot down.
4. She works there for ten years but never sees what really happens in an abortion. That is hard to believe. The compartmentalization this film portrays is astounding. It comes across that her being embarrassed by the mean director of PP in Houston was as much a factor as the truth about abortion.
5. She admits to being complicit in 22,000 abortions and her husband says, "God will forgive you." Cheap grace, anyone?
6. The My Pillow guy at the end took me out of the story. (My friend said he put up some of the money, so I guess they gave him a part.)
That said, it's worth seeing, although $11 at my local theater was a shocker.
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