Amazing Love

The Book of Hosea is one of the most compelling books of the Bible for a number of reasons, one of which is because it's a love story, so it's bound to resonate with everyone on some level. So for this film, a camping trip is used to contextualize the story.

It begins with a few young Christians taken to the wilderness for a weekend by none other than Sean Astin, a great casting choice. The core group gets along well enough, but one character is outed because she's different on the surface. With that said, the characters aren't the selling point, but I think they do good enough of a job that they don't weigh down the meat of the story, which is the story of Hosea.

In it, we get an interesting depiction of Hosea, the trials he endured with his wife Gomer, and the relation it had to God and Israel (or His people in general.) We're taken through the story while the characters react to it in a way that I believe teens actually would. They don't agree with God's ways at first, but once they understand the depths of love He has for us, it seems to make more sense. Willingness to sacrifice. The acting and sets in the ancient scenes are also quite good.

The camping trip may seem to be the weaker element at first, but the characters grow on you because they experience their own changes and growth; but as for the depiction of Hosea and his life, those scenes are engaging and compelling. Additionally, the youth scenes contrast the more serious parts for the sake of pacing and variety, as well as relatability.

Overall, it's pretty good. Not perfect, but the message was what mattered because Hosea's story is touching and poignant.

First of all, this movie talks about how the Lord would do anything for you, even if you've turned your back against him, how much he cares for you, and how much he loves you. The Lord tells Hosea to marry a harlot, and Hosea being the good man he is, followed the Lord's instructions and didn't hesitate. The Lord would show how he felt, through Hosea. In my opinion, this movie skillfully portrays the lesson as to why the Lord did what he did, and with the modern-day story of the 5 kids, 2 of which hated each other, this lesson would stick to most people, and be applied to their daily lives, although this movie was not made as well as most, the lesson is still there for us to learn from.

Secondly, this movie sometimes paraphrases or goes into too much detail compared to the book of Hosea. In the book, it doesn't say how Hosea met Gomer, or things like that. And sometimes it skips important things that were mentioned in the bible, although it was mildly touched on, like the name of the three offsprings of Hosea and Gomer, and their names and what they represent.

I like the way the movie began with all those teenagers. Their characters were all different, some were mean and some were good. I like the man because he always shows respect to the teenagers. He help a lot to them that their personal lives were changed at the end because of hosea story. The bad thing for me was when the movie began with the girls hating each other, they were not getting along. It was tough for them, it took a long time for them to get along. But at the end they started talking to each other and started to telling each other about themselves. It was very nice.

Compare

Israel was not following God. God told Hosea to marry the unfaithful women. God told them to have 3 children named Jezreel, Lo-ammi, and Lo-ruhamah, and then She cheated with other men, after that she became a slave and Hosea bought her and they were together again.

Contrast

I thought she cheated Hosea because she was bored of him in the story and she didn't know anything about God, for the movie I saw was that she cheated for money at that time. When Gomer was a slave I thought Hosea bought from the men that Gomer was cheated with but Hosea bought her from another man. At the end they were together again with faith and they trusted each other.

Personal application

This movie teaches me about how much faith Hosea has on God and teaches Hosea how God feels when he has been rejected from his people. It was really hard for Hosea to go through those stuff that have happened to God. God just wants to teach us how much he loves them and show him how much he cares for those who rejected God.

Conclusion

It was a good ending. Some parts of the movie were not the same as the bible but it went great on it.

I expected an acting, writing, and directing quality on a par with The Chosen, given the common heritage. I've never seen a dramatic production of Hosea and I love the biblical story so I was looking forward to seeing this one.

The Bible story part of the movie is true to the biblical narrative, along with necessary dramatic additions to turn an old story into a modern dramatization. As others have said: good lessons and true to the Bible.

But the acting is painful, on a par with high school drama. The writing is adolescent. Otherwise good actors have a hard time delivering the lines because the language is so choppy and hard to relate to. I hate to say it but this is another typical B-grade production from the Christian drama department.

There's another story that takes up about 60% of the screen time about camp kids in the modern age that are told the story of Hosea and Homer around the campfire. This story basically reduces the target audience to adolescent christians.

If this were focused on Hosea and Gomer and developed into a full dramatization of the biblical story I'd give it a 70-75% even with the disappointing production; with the unnecessary sideline I downgrade it to 50%.

I think the movie, Amazing Love relates really well to the Hosea story. It talks about all the main parts and adds a nice view point. It showed me Hosea's character. It's one thing to read about how Hosea was but watching someone act out this part was amazing because Hosea was such a special, religious man. The movie related to Hosea's story in many ways while still adding a new view point.

I always knew Hosea was a great guy but watching this movie made me really see how forgiving, kind and loving he was. It relates to Hosea's story in the bible really well. It talks about the kids and the prophecies and Israel, but it highlights Hosea's relationship with Gomer. Gomer is viewed in a bad light, as a whore and an unfaithful woman. She doesn't love and appreciate Hosea and he still loves her with all his heart. The movie gives us a new perspective on that though because the movie says how we shouldn't judge someone if we don't know the whole story and how we should be kind to people like Hosea was. Just a little bit of kindness can change someone's life. Overall it was an enjoyable movie, the filming was good quality ,the acting was realistic, and the movie related to Hosea's story really well.

This story means a lot to me because it really lets us see how someone can have such a big impact on everything. Hosea didn't care what people thought about him and he didn't change his ways to protect his ego, he was completely loyal and faithful to God. It shows that with God we can do anything and more importantly with God we can change peoples lives for the better. In the movie, I really liked the part in which Carrie and Ashley had a fight because it shows another situation in which we can look at Hosea's message. Maybe it wasn't the message he was speaking but it was the message he was showing. We need to always be kind to people and show God's light through our actions because we could change someone's life like Hosea changed Gomer's or like Carrie changed Ashley's. The movie was excellent and added a really nice view point. I would recommend watching it.