A must see! I LOVED IT! Just like the book, the movie is not about denominational theology or a particular religious interpretation of faith. But rather a look at our eternal questions; why do we suffer? Why GOD allows it? And if HE allows it, doesn’t it makes HIM a bad or evil GOD? And so many other questions that our limited mind can’t understand… but wonders.
HOW TO WATCH THIS POWERFUL FILM: Don’t watch it trying to make a list of the things they got WRONG! In the New Testament the Apostle Paul always started out his letters with the things that the church in that city got RIGHT! On the other hand, the Pharisees missed both who Jesus is and His message because their approach was always to begin by looking for the things which they believed He got wrong! Let the things which this film got right sink in! Meditate deeply on these truths! How do they apply to your life? What is God telling you through this film? Only AFTER you have seen what is true and beautiful in this film and spent enough time meditating on the things which are true, should you start looking for it’s defects! Don’t be like the Pharisees!
I HAVE THIS FILM IN MY AMAZON VIDEO LIBRARY!
PLOT: Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips suffered physical and emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his drunken father. He witnessed similar abuse of his mother as well. There is the implication that as a 13-year-old boy he attempted to poison his father with strychnine. Whether he succeeded in killing the man is not entirely clear, although subsequent events suggest that he did. But as an adult he has a bountiful life with his wife, Nan, and their three children: Kate, Josh and Missy.
Mack’s life is shattered, however, when their youngest child Missy disappears during a camping trip while he is saving Kate and Josh during a canoeing accident. The police determine Missy is the victim of a serial killer after finding her torn dress and blood in a vacant cabin. Kate blames herself for Missy’s death because of her own reckless behavior in causing the canoe accident in the first place. The tragedy derails Mack’s faith and life until the onset of winter when he receives an unstamped, typewritten note in his mailbox. The surrounding snow is devoid of any incriminating tracks. The message is signed “Papa” (which was Nan’s nickname for God) and invites him to meet at the cabin.
Thinking this may possibly be an opportunity for meeting and capturing or killing the serial killer, Mack drives himself there and, finding the ruined cabin cold and desolate and empty, is overcome with frustration, rage and an almost irresistible impulse to turn his handgun on himself. But he suddenly encounters a mysterious trio of strangers who invite him to stay at their well-furnished, cozy little house that is situated just down the path and, oddly, in the midst of a beautiful, sunshiny, summertime wilderness.
The trio of strangers gradually reveal their identities.
The purpose of their invitation is to first help him to better understand his life as seen from a much broader context or higher perspective. This realization helps free him from an inclination to pass judgment upon himself as well as upon everyone else who crosses his path. It is from that new starting point that he may then continue his long, slow journey into healing for himself and his family and forgiveness for himself as well as for those who have grievously harmed him and his loved ones.
The Shack is a 2017 Christian drama film directed by Stuart Hazeldine and written by John Fusco, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by William P. Young.
