Dial a Prayer

Around Thanksgiving season in suburban Detroit, a troubled 26 years-old woman (Brittany Snow) evades jail by working for a prayer hotline, but she can only connect with those who need help when she stops following the script. William H. Macy plays the pastor of the ministry, Glenne Headly her mentally ill mother and Tom Lipinski a man drawn to Cora.

"Dial a Prayer" (2015) is a drama and spiritual exploration that also satirizes Christian religion as a business in the first half. While it's not what is known as a "faith-based" film, it's also not necessarily anti-God, anti-Scripture, anti-faith or anti-spirituality. For anyone who argues that it's completely anti-spiritual, someone clearly receives a healing through prayer and the laying on of hands, which are biblical concepts.

Yes, so-and-so commits fornication, but the Bible shows God using mighty Samson even though he visited a prostitute (Judges 16). The flick is only against go-through-the-motions Christian religion (notice I said religion).

I'd put this in the same category of "The Preacher's Daughter" (2012) even though that one lacks the satire angle. It's just no where near as good because there's a little too much ambiguity, especially in the weak ending.

The movie runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot entirely in the Detroit area of Michigan, including Royal Oak, Ferndale and Troy, all of which are 6-12 miles north of the city.

GRADE: B-/C+

Brittany Snow is one of my favourite actresses, and this movie is a great reminder why. She delivers incredible scenes and portrays Cora in an amazing way. The movie itself is good, but the title and premise of the movie kind of makes it seem like a movie that is going to convince a girl who's gone off-track to find faith in god, however that isn't what the movie is about at all. My automatic thought is that this is a movie for religious people, but i don't think religious people would enjoy this movie all that much, and non-religious people wouldn't think about picking it up because of the title and premise of the movie. Still, however, it is a great movie.

In the last year or so, quite a few films have debuted which have been targeted to a more conservative Christian audience, such as "Son of God" as well as "God is Not Dead". I assumed that "Dial a Prayer" is pretty much another one of these films, though despite its plot, it isn't exactly something that will appeal to many of the same folks who would have seen these other movies.

The film is about a surly young lady, Cora (Brittany Snow). She's got attitude, that's for sure...and you know that she's been sentenced to do community service for some sort of crime, though for much of the film you have no idea what she's done. As for her community service, she works for a Dial-a-Prayer service--an odd choice for community service considering her attitude about life as well as what crimes she committed. Oddly, however, despite being an angry, lost soul, through the course of the film, she comes to develop a sense of purpose and begins to shed some of her anger and hopelessness.

"Dial a Prayer" has a lot going for it. Snow's performance is exceptional, as she played troubled and angry quite well--so well that it was difficult liking her character for much of the film. This is a major plus. Additionally, it sure didn't hurt that the nice minister who ran the center was played by William H. Macy--a guy who just make everything look so easy and natural. I also like the notion that ACTING good, after a while, makes you good-- something fundamental to many philosophies and branches of psychology. The film also really was nice because it was very unique and there isn't anything else like it that I've seen in a very long time.

But, the film also has a huge problem which will easily impact its marketability. For the traditional Christian audience, while most of the story will make them quite happy, the cursing and sex in the film just don't fit in with their values and it's hard to imagine them not being offended. As for others, there are also a lot of folks who have no interest in a film about spirituality--and they'd never see such a movie in the first place. As a result, while it's a very good film, I just don't know if it has much of an audience, though it is worth seeing.

The story is not told exactly linearly, we see snippets of flashbacks that eventually all add up to what happened in the backstory of Cora.

Brittany Snow is 26-yr-old Cora and the first scenes has her showing up for an assignment with the local Detroit "Dial A Prayer" hotline. Everyone else there is happy and enthusiastic but it is clear she would rather be just about anywhere else. But she had gotten into some pretty serious trouble and her high powered lawyer dad managed to get her to do restitution by working the prayer hotlines.

William H. Macy is always good and here he is good as Bill, the leader of the prayer office. The story arc is Cora figuring out that her life up to that point, and the friends she hung out with, might not be the best trajectory and she has to figure out a better path.

The movie works because Brittany Snow is so good and authentic in the role of Cora. I found it on Youtube streaming free movies (with a few ads thrown in). I found it worthwhile viewing.

I got excited in the beginning. This seemed to have a lot of potential in the beginning. It was funny, quirky and interesting. But then somewhere in the middle it just went flat. What was the purpose? What's the plot? What's the point? It's almost like the whole movie was one inside joke for only the crew and cast to understand. The ending was confusing. I feel like I got the idea of where they wanted to go but then they just went completely off road and we couldn't understand what the point was. So this woman goes through all of this spiritual growing only to do what? Why? Where? I'm so confused.