I Can Only Imagine Movie Review

     The film opens up with a young Bart at his grandmothers house blowing leaves around with a leaf blower. Although he probably was playing around, his grandmother loved him and told him what a fine job he did and gave him some money. Bart rides off on his bicycle, stops by a music store, and gets some new cassette tapes to play on his recorder. He visits a junk store and picks of items to make a pretty cool space helmet. When he arrives home, he finds his Dad burning football shoulder pads and throwing his own football trophies in a barrel filled with fire. Dad comes in and gets into an argument with Bart’s Mom and then snatches Bart’s helmet and throws it into the fire can. His Dad is actually an angry man who is both verbally and physically abusive to his wife as well as his own son.

     A few days later, Bart’s Mom takes him to a Summer Christian Camp and drops him off for a week. She tells him that she loves him and drives away. Little does Bart know that she is leaving the entire family and running away with another man. Not only is Bart a victim of child abuse, but his own Mother left him with the abuser. But Bart is a survivor and only by God’s grace that he has made it into adulthood. Bart played football to satisfy his Dad, but even when Bart was severely injured, his Dad had very little compassion for him. His Dad was a hard and hateful man. The entire movie portrays his Dad as an abusive father until almost the end.

      Not able to play football, Bart joined the High School Glee Club and it was there that it was discovered that he could sing, and sing very well. He starred in the High School Play, “Oklahoma” and started attending church with his girlfriend. In one scene, Bart had dressed for church and was going to sing in a televised service on the radio and his Dad got very angry at him and broke a plate of eggs over the back of his head. Bart then leaves and heads to church with a bloody head.

     After Bart graduated from High School, he and his girlfriend parted ways because Bart was a troubled young man and he wanted to leave the town. He went on to Oklahoma City and it was there that he joined a band and they called themselves “Mercy Me.”  He tried to find his way in the Christian music business, through the help of Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Scott Brickell. But before Bart was ready, he had to find himself so that he could write from the heart. It took a while and Bart went back home to confront his Dad. Little did Bart know that his Dad had come to Christ and had become a Christian. His Dad’s life had been changed. It took Bart a while to accept it that his Dad really had changed, but he came to understand that if God could transform a monster into a man who was in love with God, God could change anyone.

     His Dad ultimately died and then Bart went back on the road with his band, Mercy Me. It was that time that he wrote, “I Can Only Imagine.” Bart and Brickell pitched the song to Amy Grant. She agreed to record it and sing it at one of her concerts. But as Grant was about to sing it, she just could not because it was not her story. She asked Bart to come up on stage and sing his song, which he did. He got a standing ovation and that was the beginning of the hit song, “I Can Only Imagine.”

     As I think about the film, and the analogy of how his Father treated his own son, his Dad really was a monster and yet God came to his Dad, convicted him of his evil ways. His Dad asked Jesus into his life and he was forgiven.  Isn’t it a miracle that even when we act so nasty, evil, hateful, and mean; it is only through Jesus Christ that hearts can be changed and turned around. Arthur Millard Jr. was an All-American Football player and was Bart Millard’s Dad. Bart was beaten at least three to four times a week and his Dad even told Bart at one time that he did not care about him. But God got a hold of his Dad and changed his heart and his life. This is what the song and film is about.

     Unless you have a hard heart, bring your tissues. There was not a dry eye in the theater last night. I give this film FIVE STARS! It is a very well made movie and I highly recommend it!.

Bart – J. Michael Finley

Young Bart – Brody Rose

Scott Brickell – Trace Adkins

Young Shannon – Taegen Burns

Shannon – Madeline Carroll

Amy Grant – Nicole DuPont

Michael W. Smith – Jake B. Miller

Arthur (Bart’s Dad) – Dennis Quaid

Directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin