The Grace Card (2011)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 17
Tailored for a very specific audience, The Grace Card delivers its noble religious message via implausible plot twists and preachy dialogue.
Average Rating: 4.3/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 11
Tailored for a very specific audience, The Grace Card delivers its noble religious message via implausible plot twists and preachy dialogue.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 3,461
My Rating
Movie Info
This earnest evangelical drama draws inspiration from the Bible verse Hebrews 4:16 ("We will find grace to help us when we need it") in its tale of a police officer named Bill "Mac" McDonald (Michael Joiner) whose life is shattered (and his faith severely challenged) when he loses his son in a tragic accident. Eighteen years of rage and hostility ensue, marked by rapidly crumbling relationships with his family members and strained relationships on the force. Events reach a fever pitch, however,
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Cast
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Louis Gossett Jr
George Wright -
Michael Joiner
Mac McDonald -
Michael Higgenbottom
Sam Wright -
Joy Demichelle Moore
Sara McDonald -
Dawntoya Thomason
Debra Wright -
Rob Erickson
Blake McDonald -
Cindy Hodge
Dr. Vines -
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All Critics (26) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (17) | DVD (1)
As stiff as it is sincere.
Top CriticMovie goers likely will look over The Grace Card's entertainment value to focus on this simple prescription for how to gracefully love your neighbor.
Blessed with fine performances, credible dialogue and slick production values that belie a reportedly paltry budget, The Grace Card ranks among the better religious-themed indies released in recent years.
It's OK to put out a movie with a message. But rendering even potentially dramatic stories so inoffensive that they bear no relation to reality makes for middling drama.
Despite its lapse into melodrama, this faith-based drama is surprisingly effective.
"The Grace Card" is a Christian drama about a racist cop and his gospel-preaching partner who . . . hey, wait a second. Where are you going?
A modern morality play serving as a telling reminder about the real meaning of forgiveness.
Dragged down by earnest but amateurish performances and an overall Afterschool Special vibe
Not up to the level of "Facing the Giants" or "Fireproof" but a pretty amazing first try
A heartfelt and inspirational drama about the healing power of grace, reconciliation and forgiveness.
This passionate faith-based movie offers moral encouragement and gives people an altruistic goal worth achieving. It deserves to be ranked alongside similar message-driven movies as "Facing the Giants" and "Fireproof."
...not so much a bad movie as a timid one, in that it fails to fulfill the potential of its honestly not bad script, which raises some difficult questions ... and its denouement, however predictable, is genuinely moving.
A modern morality play offering a satisfying reminder about the real meaning of forgiveness.
This effort from writer/director David G. Evans gets points for soft-peddling dogma in favor of human stories. And the film benefits from a compelling performance by Michael Joiner, a Kansas City-based stand-up comic who provides a watchable center.
The film is powerful when operating on the personal level of two men working out faith, but disappointing that their story is buried in a heavy-handed, manipulative plot.
This is an unpretentious but sincere film with quiet power, and its final scenes are moving and inspirational.
The latest in the market-a-movie-to-churches trend, "The Grace Card" has the ring of a sermon about it.
The filmmakers seem more interested in coddling the converted than ministering to sinners.
Audience Reviews for The Grace Card
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
One of the critics put it best: This movie was about as interesting as an Afterschool Special. The problem with this, and most "Christian" dramas is that they are decidedly two-demensional, and not the least bit nauanced. As I was watching the plot come down the road from a mile away, it seemed that it would be much more believable if the plot, like life (even a life infused with spirituality and devoted and subsisting with God), had taken an unanticipated turn. The movie would have been much better if the preacher-partner and the rebelious kid had died in the course of the transplant surgery. Then, they, like people in real life, would have expressed the essential Christian realization that this life is a pilgram journey, a vail of tears. This life is like looking in a mirror. We look in the mirror in this lifetime. We see our reflection in the next. Do in this life what you hope to see in the next.
If you want a movie that really reflects the reality and beauty of Christianity, see "Of Gods and Men."
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- Debra Wright: We all lose sight of the meaning Forgiveness. The Grace Card. shows a deep meaningful part of forgiveness which is Grace. We all need Grace!
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- George Wright: Never underestimate the power of grace.
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- Blake McDonald: Don't go preacher on me man.
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