The Hopeful

A cinematically gorgeous and highly respectful film about the complex history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Music is lush, beautiful, and moving--perfect for its subject. My husband and I really enjoyed the artistic device of having early Adventist J. N. Andrews telling the story to his children on a ship heading to Europe, where he became the church's first overseas missionary. I had not realized he was a widower at the time. My husband and I learned many things we had not known about our church in this movie, and it has piqued our interest to learn more.

Not only that, but we found the production quality of this film to be superb for a movie not out of Hollywood. The only regrettable thing was that, in our theater, the Regal Edwards in Ontario, CA, before the actual movie, they showed trailer after trailer--a full 30 minutes' worth--of nightmarishly violent, gory, despicable films you would never want to see yourself, let alone your children to see. It made me wonder whether the theater manager had it in for Christians, or if there really are that many horrific films being made today. And enough people to watch them. What kind of society have we become?

Here's the thing: Some of the characters in "The Hopeful" not only foresaw this from the mid-1800s, they wrote about how the story ends. It will be a wonderful ending!

What's not apparent in the synopsis is that this movie retraces an apparently defining moment of the Adventist church.

If you are not an Adventist it's likely that like me you'll find this movie rather empty and very underwhelming... if you are, maybe you'll want to disregard the review anyway.

I'll give credit to the outdoor scenes and costumes which are the best bits of the movie. There is however no plot and the message passed will feel shallow even if you're Christian... one of the characters becomes broke only to make the statement that Gold will provide... and he eventually receives 10$ in the mail - I don't think I've heard anything as corny as that in any movie scenario recently...

The hopeful is a great movie that comes across as heartfelt. This movie makes me want to go watch Tell the World in its entirety. Tell the world is The unedited version. The directing and editing are top-notch. They did a wonderful job. They made Tell the World into a 90 minute The Hopeful without messing with the flow of the movie. The actors did an amazing job portray these historical characters. I do recommend the long version, tell the world. Tell the World runtime is approximately 2 hours and a half, is is great. So much history was left on the cutting room floor, But I understand everyone cannot watch a two hour and a half movie. In conclusion, the hopeful is a wonderful way to give some insight into founding members of the seven day Adventist church.

Great story, acting, music! This historical drama had it all for a low budget movie. Very well written script and the scenery was marvelous. I felt like I was in the mid-1800s. I like how the story included historical American events like slavery, the civil war, and the Great Disappointment.

The special effects weren't too bad. The movie is about an hour and a half but didn't feel rushed or too long. I was very impressed with the casting. This movie should be considered for one of the top Christian based films.

I highly recommend you watch this movie. You won't be disappointed. Excellent Christian storytelling.