The Captive
A FAITH-BASED MOVIE REVIEW
Getting that God-life does not mean you get to be the only guy who doesn’t get to go to the movies! Nope! It just means that you get to be one of the few who choose not to sully your soul with a 90 minute thrill on the eyes, that could chill your heart for days or even months to come!
Check out our latest ‘The Narrow Gateway’ review of the movie, Captive.
TITLE OF MOVIE: The Captive
ACTORS: David Oyelowo, Kate Mara, Michael Kenneth Williams, Elle Graham, Claudia Church
GENRE: Faith based crime drama adaptation
Before I even get to the storyline, let me just say; this movie had me clutching hold of my heart and squeezing it every few minutes! The movie has you living breath by breath. I mean, not only was it graced by some super A-list actors, including our very own proudly Nigerian, David Oyelowo, it was performed so brilliantly, that we felt every crescendo as if the whole saga was happening to us! The movie definitely got it’s strong and captivating message across:
Redemption. Hope. Restoration. Purpose.
No one is beyond God’s reach. No one is beyond God’s love. God will always find a way to let even the most apparently far-gone of us know, that not only does He love us indescribably, but He also has a plan for us to change the world, using the very broken pieces of our lives.
Gosh!
Okay, here’s the story line.
STORYLINE:
This incredibly moving movie is based on a book by Ashley Smith, in which she re-tells her true-life experience at the hands of Brian Nichols, an escaped convict.
Brian Nichols is an unpredictable and unstable young man, who breaks out of police custody rather dramatically, injures and murders a trail of people, then randomly finds an apartment to hole up in.
It turns out that the apartment belongs to Ashley, a young widow and mother of a little girl, and she comes to the party with her own tales of woe. She is a recovering meth addict, who has lost a whole lot of life’s goodness to her addiction.
The storyline spans the course of several hours, during which time, Ashley finds strength, seemingly out of nowhere, to start reading and sharing bits of a book titled The Purpose Driven Life”, by Rick Warren, with Brian. Now, just from what I know about that book…I mean, that should say it all!
WOW!
As in! Is that God or what?!
The story continues to unfold, dramatically, but if I say more, I’ll be giving out spoilers!
TARGET AUDIENCE: Ages 13 and above, with Parental Guidance
VALUES AND WORLD VIEWS PROMOTED BY SERIES:
I think, to get the full picture, you just have to scour Youtube for interviews that Ashley Smith has since done on her experience. You get to see a young woman who, by many human counts, did actually deserve to be yet another victim at the hands of a man who had already killed 4 innocent people. So how come she was not killed too, or raped, or even beaten?
The answer lies in Ashley’s subsequent explanation of where she was at in her life at the time. She had recently made a fragile recommitment to God, one that she really desired to keep, though she had no clue if she had the strength to keep it. She basically took a step toward God only to find that He had been taking a whole lotta steps towards her, all along. She had invited God to restore her from a life of drug addiction, and though she had no idea how it was going to work, she really meant it when she invited God in. And alas! God came in, used a dramatic situation (as we know He often does) to deliver her from her addiction.
The experience of being captured by a killer and an accused rapist literally turned out to be Ashley’s deliverance from a life of drug addiction and brokenness.
Neither the movie, nor the way Ashley tells her story in her interviews excuses sin or evil. Instead, it spotlights God’s mercy, God’s grace and God’s powerful hand in the lives of absolutely anybody who will give Him just an inch. Give Him an inch, and He will take MILES and MILES…that’s God. He loves us that much. And we see that play out in both Ashley and Brian’s lives.
So the values here are certainly 100% PLUS PLUS! Redemption. Hope. Grace. Undeserved mercy. Love. Forgiveness. Deliverance. Purpose. Purpose. Purpose.
Ashley is now remarried. She spends her time speaking about her experience of how God worked deliverance into her very broken life, using some very broken circumstances.
RELEVANT BIBLE REFERENCES:
The movie actually opens with one.
Romans 5:20. Where sin abounded, grace abounded more.
Goosebumps. That’s one of my favourite verses. We often think that the more sinful we are, the more God retreats and stands behind some golden sideline waiting for us to kill ourselves off. Alas, that is not the case. The worse a person is, the more grace God pours out at you.
I quote from one of the interviews that Ashley Smith has done over the last 12 years since, “You can be so messed up and so far gone, and God is like, “Yea but…I have hope for you…”
Another verse that comes to mind is, Psalm 91:7-8.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
WHO SHOULD WATCH THIS?
Everyone. Absolutely everyone.
WHO SHOULD NOT WATCH THIS?
Little kids and preteens may find some of the scenes frightening or disturbing.
RATING:
I would give a 4 out of 5.
CHRISTIAN TRANSFORMATIONAL PROGRAMS BY COACH TOYIN
Donate
Contact Us
The B.O.O.M Walk Program by Toyin Oladiran
We all come from somewhere. We all have our battle scars. We all have those life experiences, past or even ongoing, that have forced us into shadowy corners in our lives, preventing us from living fully, loving fully and most of all, serving God to the uttermost.
Some of us have carried on in this way, and gone on to do life ‘normally’, to become pastors, engineers, fathers, builders, lovers, secretaries, government officials, wives, teachers, sports coaches, gym instructors, you name it. Yet many are living a façade; a classic tale of smokes and mirrors. Many are carrying around, and being defined by those pivotal life experiences. Many have learnt to accept that this is just the way life is – living with and from the baggage.
What’s your scar? Where does it come from? Is it still driving your thoughts and responses to life? Are you tired of your scars keeping you wedged off into the fringes and sidelines of life, constantly angry, bitter, frustrated, rejected, insecure, proud, self-righteous … etc?
That’s what you and I will be tackling with the HOLY SPIRIT in The B.O.O.M WALK PROGRAM.💥
This Program is for EVERYONE…
…Yes, I said EVERYONE!
Be careful now. Do not think that only people who struggle with what we erroneously call ‘the big sins’ like murder, slavery, adultery etc struggle with the ‘Old Man’ (‘B.O.O.M’ stands for ‘bow out, Old Man’). Yes those are reflections of the ‘Old Man’ at work, but for the vast majority of people, the traits of the ‘Old Man’ are way more subtle, and internal.
I’m talking anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, self-righteousness, pride, fear, insecurity, rebellion against God, inferiority complex, lack of self-control…the list can go on.
The ‘Old Man’ thrives in secrecy… it’s all about the state of the mind, isn’t it?
Come on. Do not be afraid! And do not settle for more of the same!
Click here now to indicate your interest and to begin to prepare your heart and your spaces. The kind of transformation we are talking about here does not come by the click of a finger, neither does it come by lurking in a spectator’s seat. You need to take a bold step, own who you are and where you are at, and come along, for The B.O.O.M Walk Program.
I cannot WAIT to work with you. And if I am so excited about it, imagine how God, the Incredible Lover of your soul feels?😉
Hugs and Love,
Toyin Oladiran (Christian Transformational Coach and Creator of The B.O.O.M Walk Program)
The Narrow Gateway
We back your bold and brazen quest for #thatGodlife that is found by those who dare to enter by “the narrow way”.
Click here to get your free access to our edgy programs, podcasts, videos, blog-posts. Get the practical support that you need, to do life differently; to respond to life by taking the road less travelled.
