Avez-vous la foi?

I am grateful to God for the opportunity to watch this. It awakened my faith. It is a movie every christian should watch. God bless you all for making yourselves available for this.

You don't have to be a Christian or, indeed, a believer of any kind to enjoy movies (or books, or plays) that have Christian themes, or that clearly promote a message. Such themes are very subtly played out in Gabriel Axel's 'Babette's Feast,' less subtly in the Narnia stories and Lord of the Rings, and rather blatantly in, for example, Ben Hur, to give only a few examples. All these have in common that they tell engaging stories in either dramatic settings, or with vivid, engaging characters, or both. 'Do you believe?' has insipid, cardboard-cutout characters and no genuine drama whatever. I can't trash it completely, because it's decently acted with competent cinematography -- a slick package, in fact. So slick, in fact, as to be suspicious. This is a movie that is clearly designed to push a product, and any artistic or dramatic interest it might raise is clearly a device, directed toward that end. Although the movie is frequently described as "Christian," in reality it promotes a particular kind of US, affluent, protestant Christianity. One of the characters is a tame pastor whose role is merely to expound the doctrine of substitutionary atonement and keep everybody on message. I suspect that if you were, say, a Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, that message would grate on you almost as much as it would on an atheist. It wouldn't be so bad if the message were not delivered in such a plodding, heavy-handed manner. All the Christian Characters are shown as self-sacrificing, noble, and charitable; everybody else as in some way defective. The non-Christians exist solely to act as foils to the Christians, and highlight their Godly virtues. I know from personal experience that most Christians are as prone to be conflicted and self-interested as anybody else, even if they aspire to higher ideals. But there's little sense of that aspiration in the movie -- even the putative "bad guys" are just good guys who have fallen in bad company, and just need a little nudge from the Big G to become fully-fledged saints. There's no sense that anybody struggles with his or her faith, or is put into real danger by it. The biggest risk that any character in the movie faces for standing up for his principles is to lose his job. Big deal -- it's not example martyrdom, is it? If you are already a Christian -- in particular, a protestant evangelical Christian -- then I guess this movie might give you a warm fuzzy. Anybody else, anybody who can look beyond the slick facade and see the not-very-subtle manipulation, will wish we hadn't stopped throwing Christians to the lions.

The movie moves a number of story lines to converge. One great thing is that one or more of the threads will touch you. The acting was excellent. And of course the theme was the preeminence of Jesus. It deals with the most important subject matter of life. Bravo. The movie will really pull on your heart and your emotions. If you think about it, many of the feelings you experience are similar to real life.....key words being real and life. Great job everyone involved. Viewers, go see it. You will love it or hate it but it will not leave you in the middle. Rather like the cross....you have to make a choice and then live your life by it.

"Do You Believe?" is centered around the lives of 12 people and the different challenges that they face in their lives. These 12 include a homeless mother (Mira Sorvino) and her precocious daughter (an excellent Makenzie Moss), a dying ex-con (Brian Bosworth), an ER doctor (Sean Astin) and his lawyer wife (Andrea Logan White), an elderly couple (Lee Majors and Cybill Shepherd) dealing with the loss of the daughter, a suicidal young woman (Alexa PenaVega), a recently deployed soldier (Joseph Julian Soria), a pastor (Ted McGinley), an EMT (Liam Matthews), a homeless pregnant mother (Madison Pettis) and a young man, Pretty Boy (Shwayze), who has a change-of-heart about how he's living his life. It all starts when the pastor, Matthew, encounters a street preacher (Delroy Lindo). The preacher asks Matthew if he believes in the Cross of Christ and then precedes to risk his life for his faith when he confronts a group of thugs, including Pretty Boy, and is threatened by Pretty Boy's brother Kriminal with a gun. When Matthew sees the preacher continue to stand up for his faith, even when he's threatened with death, he begins to wonder if he's doing enough. This inspires Matthew to challenge the members of his congregation (which includes half of the characters listed above) to put their faith into action. Examples include the ex-con, Joe, taking in the homeless mother and child when the local shelter is closed, the EMT sharing his faith with a dying man, Pretty Boy deciding to change his criminal ways, the pastor and his wife taking in the homeless, pregnant young woman, and more. Eventually, most of the characters come together in a heart-pounding climatic sequence set on a bridge (which is, without a doubt, worth the price of admission alone). "Do You Believe?" is an inspiring film about putting your beliefs into action. Anyone can say they believe in something, but do their actions back up what they believe in. Sure, this film might stretch the imagination a couple times, but what film doesn't. This film is a thought-provoking look at the lives of others and the power of faith, of hope, and of love. With strong performances, an unpredictable plot. an intense ending, and is safe to watch with your family, "Do You Believe?" is HIGHLY recommended.

Went to the first showing AMC Willowbrook 24, 7:00 pm Thursday. Wonderful, Awesome, Bring Kleenex. Must see movie. OMG... The audience clapped and starting singing to the song at the end of the movie. I was blown away by the acting. Great director. I feel the same way. Will there be enough evidence from my life, to convict me as Guilty of being a Christian. We all must be more "radiall" with our sharing of God's Love. I will continue to always praise God and share the Good News, Jesus Lives! A movie to share with all age groups. The young and old will share their hopes and disappointments. Men and women, singles and couples will continue to discuss God's teachings, James 2:1-13 You shall love your neighbor as yourself; For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

After suffering through "Saving Christmas" and reading that this movie had received bad reviews on many sites, I really was not expecting much. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. For me, It was gripping and thought provoking. The acting was a lot better than the reviews, and the story line was well put together for a 120 minute movie. This is definitely worth watching and once again proves that you should never take some "critics" review of a movie too seriously. What I loved about it is how it ties together 12 different peoples journey to Christ and tackles that age old question, "why does God let bad things happen to good people?". It shows how we only see a little part of his plan and his understanding is far greater than ours.