By Georgina Wilcox

Last night, along with many others I went to the Cinema at Camana Bay, to watch the movie “I Can Only Imagine”.

The movie is based on the background story of the hit Christian pop song of the same name recorded by MercyMe.

Please don’t be put off if you are a non-Christian, or rarely go to church, or loathe Christian movies for their ‘preaching’, usually poor writing and production. This one is very different. Also, a lot of the professional critics panned it, whilst the overwhelming public opinion is very different.

The story centres around the band’s lead singer Bart Millard (J. Michael Finley), who wrote the song, and his unhappy childhood when he was growing up with his abusive father Arthur (Dennis Quaid) and a mother who left both of them when he was an adolescent.

Arthur really is a horrible being and Quaid gives a performance of a lifetime. I really hated him.

So as to please his loathsome father, and not to continue his love for music, Bart aspires to a football career but an injury sidelines him permanently. Later, when a teacher accidentally hears him singing, she immediately casts him in the lead role of Curley in the school production of Oklahoma!

And the rest as they say is history.

There is even a love interest, a childhood sweetheart, who Bart breaks the lovely lady’s heart when he leaves home after a fight with Arthur. Arthur breaks a plate across Bart’s head!.

Arthur meets a band who are looking for a lead singer and it is named “Mercy Me” after his grandmother, who utters the two words continuously.

Country singer, Trace Adkins, is at hand and he becomes the band’s manager.

I won’t tell you anymore but I hope I have given you enough to whet your appetite.

Yes, there are some very corny lines, and when Bart, as a young boy kisses his sweetheart for the first time, and fireworks exactly at that moment, I did laugh for the wrong reason.

There are, however, a lot of very moving moments, and the critic from The Hollywood Reporter, must have a heart of stone, for his sarcastic and terribly written review.

The proof is in the general reaction to the movie, not the professional critics who think special effects, super heroes, blood and guts flying in your face, foul language occupying 50% of the sound along with the ear splitting explosions, and a story that can be told in one paragraph is worth five stars.

To date, from March 16 2018 when it was first released, “I Can Only Imagine” has grossed $82.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $7 million, and is the third highest-grossing music biopic of all-time in the United States!!

I came out of the cinema last night and I overheard lots of the patrons saying how much they had enjoyed it, they had cried, and how moved they were. I felt exactly the same.

It is the first time, for a very long time, I have enjoyed a movie. If you think I only like these sort of movies, think again. I love “Westworld” on HBO. Enough said, I believe…..

“I Can Only Imagine” is playing at the Cinema at Camana Bay at the following times this week:

Wed & Thu – 7:10pm

Fri & Sat – 3:50pm and 10:00pm

Check times with the cinema for the following week at: https://www.fandango.com/camana-bay-cinema-aawgb/theater-page