User reviews

I Can Only Imagine is a healthy dose of positivity in a seemingly negative world. Its message of love and forgiveness is given in a way that doesn't seem forced or overly cheesy. To be honest, I remember this song being played all the time on the radio, but I had no idea what it was about. I enjoyed seeing the inspiration behind the music.

I enjoy a wide range of movie genres. I don't seek out Christian movies in particular. I knew from the trailer the basic premise of this film, however nothing more. I knew it would be a tear jerker, but it has much more substance and is a good film on its own merits. Good performances, Denis Quaid did a very good job. It's sad that Hollywood would not even take this film seriously because, well I'll digress, someone would take offense or argue about my because opinions and I'm not a keyboard warrior. It's worth seeing in the theater, just take a Kleenex or 12.

I've lost track of how many times I've watched this movie, and every time, it moves me to tears. It is relatable and yet also challenging, I always walk away inspired. Highly recommend

I grew up watching Christian cinema like the Veggie Tales Movies, McGee and Me, Adventures in Odyssey, and, one of my favorites, "Left Behind" (2000). As I matured as a person and a filmgoer, I realized more and more that these films that I was raised on, just because they perpetuated the same morals and worldview I had, were not inherently good films. They were filled with hokey over-the-top acting, and almost all of their messages could be boiled down to one topic: the world is a sinful place, and as Christians, we need to be on our guard. Now, this message in it of itself is not a bad message. It's a good message to preach, but unfortunately that's how the films came off: preachy. This film, while still a little didactic and sure of itself, is two steps ahead of the films I grew up watching. It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's better than most of the Christian films I've seen, and that right there gives me a lot of hope for Christian cinema. This film knows who its audience is, and it panders to them, but not as much as I've seen other Christian films do. As I said at the top of this review: this is a better Christian film than I'm used to seeing. That being said, this is not the pinnacle of Christian filmmaking. We can do better, and we should do better.

I have gone to faith based movies before and always left for the most part unsatisfied. I can tell you this movie is different. You do not have to be Christian to understand and appreciate the story line. The movie is about forgiveness and hope and there is nothing wrong with that. The acting is well done, the story line is easy to follow and i must say there were more then a few times i got dust in my eyes and they watered. The song has touched millions and now the story will to. I heard it once said the song seems to never go away. Well there is a reason it never stops giving and the movie does not disappoint. I highly recommended this film.

The movie is an honest attempt to tell this redemption, forgiveness story. The lead has a stellar singing voice and Cloris Leachman has a few comic moments. But the dialogue is weak, and production feels choppy. The father played by Dennis Quaid is underdeveloped and one dimensional but he does his best with the weak script.

I had listen to the song many, many, times before watching this movie. Love the song. I didn't have any worries about how this movie was going to turn out. I dont normally give out 10 out of 10 scores but this one is special.

Great acting. Great writing. Too truly believe in this movie you have to have belief in our creator. You have to have a heart. A soul. There is a saying in church. God is good.... All the time.

I'm not a fan of contemporary Christian music. To me, they're just rock star wannabes. Also, in the film, the cynical Nashville scene is the same as for any aspiring Rock or Country musician. The film itself is overwrought with emotion, and overacted by all, including Quaid. As for quality of film, story, I really don't understand all the 5 star reviews.

This movie was so good that I HAD to review it. I have never had any other movie reach so far down into my soul. Truth is far deeper than fiction. This true story will grab ahold of your heart and soul and shake you to the core! Have you ever seen a 6'3" 280 lb giant man sobbing at a movie? I have. And I was sobbing right along with him. You will be SO glad you watched this movie

This movie is warmly recommended. I watched it a couple of years ago and can still remember this remarkable story based on true events. It starts as a story so often told and lived, within a broken family, with a drinking father and all the ugly consequences. But this story involves much more, a son who goes out to find himself and to follow his calling, despite the negative messages received over the years from his father, saying that 'you are not enough' and 'you won't make it to anything'. Although Christian life is not necessarily about realizing oneself and gaining a big name, this story is surely orchestrated by THEOS and shows His wonderful redemption and restoration in the midst of brokenness. Not a perfect restoration and with scars remaining, but still very powerful.

My mom liked this movie but overall I was disappointed at how corny it was. The transitions between the scenes were awkward and although it was based on a true story the plot was rather cheesy (too much fluff). I haven't seen many Christian movies but if this is the better of the bunch then that's pretty sad.

This movie was a fantastic telling of Bart's life and the beginning of MercyMe. Some scenes may be hard to watch because of the violence, but the redemption story that is told is beautiful. Highly recommend seeing this movie. Great acting, wonderful singing, and an amazing story.

Highly recommend this film. Real inspiration and encouragement to faith!

"I Can Only Imagine" was a funny, interesting, inspiring, and powerful true-story about the most popular Christian song of all time. It was lighthearted and funny when I needed an emotional break, but the message was strong. If you don't go because it is faith-based, you are missing out. If you grew up in the Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith era like I did...it will be a little nostalgic. Watching the band struggle in the early years reminded me of every kid I knew as a camp counselor at Camp Electric in Nashville. It made me smile. Dennis Quaid was impactful as the abusive father. It had something for everyone. I'll be going back next week with friends.

I know these folks personally. It's all true. Go see this before you miss the train! Bring a Kleenex.

This movie is so moving and is an absolute must- see. The whole movie theatre was in tears from this touching story. So many messages of forgiveness, hope, inspiration, family, etc are shown, and you are sure to cry. This movie has changed my entire perspective on MercyMe's I Can Only Imagine, and it breathes life into the lyrics of the song. Grab some tissues and friends and go see it now! Your spirit will thank you.

'I CAN ONLY IMAGINE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A Christian drama about Bart Millard, the lead singer of the popular Christian band MercyMe, and his relationship with his abusive father, who died when Bart was just 18. The true story inspired the song 'I Can Only Imagine', by MercyMe, which is the most successful Christian radio song ever. The film stars J. Michael Finley (a Broadway actor making his feature film debut), Dennis Quaid, Madeline Carroll, Trace Adkins and Cloris Leachman. It's been a huge surprise hit at the Box Office (making it one of the most successful Christian movies of all time) and it's also received mostly positive review from critics (surprisingly as well). I enjoyed it mostly (surprisingly too).

Bart Millard (Finley) was abused by his father, Arthur (Quaid), since he was very young. His mother left them due to Mr. Millard's abusive anger, and Bart's only true friend was a girl named Shannon (Carroll), who he later married. Bart was always trying to please his dad, but never could; even by becoming a star high school football player like his father was. Then Bart hurt himself doing the sport, and reluctantly turned to music instead; which was something he realized he was very good at, but he knew it would never please his father. Bart finally joined a band, despite this, which later started playing Christian music. When Bart learned his father had reformed due to religion, he wrote the chart topping song about it. This film details that true story.

The movie is actually really inspiring and moving in places. Sure it feels a little cheesy at times too, and I wasn't impressed by the lead actor at all (I think the film would have been so much better with a real actor in the lead). Quaid is fantastic though, and the movie is actually decently written and directed too; which obviously most Christian films aren't. It's also interesting and involving as well, and it never feels overly preachy (to me). I enjoyed it, despite it's poor performance from Finley.

Well made and compelling, with some sag now and then and an intrusive, overbearing score, this is a moving story about forgiveness and the crazy music business. However, it's not about Jesus Christ or the Gospel. Our Savior is barely (if at all) mentioned. The SOURCE of all forgiveness, His death for all sin and resurrection-the GOOD NEWS!- is never presented. Some characters even attribute the song "I Can Only Imagine", to changing their lives--not Jesus Christ! The abusive father's life change apparently came through listening to a magic radio. Then there is the absurd glorification of worldly success. This is a nice religious movie for a comfortable church goer about a magic song that can magically change lives.

How beautifully told is this fabulous story of redemption, mercy and forgiveness - of taking the journey to find the authentic story that is you......

We see the depth of evil a parent can fall to and the impact on a child - we see a series of life events that lead that child now young adult to go back to his roots and ultimately find the major missing piece of his life - a father's love - I don't see this as a Christian story - I relate to it big time and I am not Christian - it is a story of how to free our souls through acceptance, to unleash everything we were meant to be.

Bravo!

Not every story is worth adapting for film. Judging this as what it is, a movie, there's nothing special. I can't point to even one unique thing in this movie, the whole thing feels very uninspired. To enjoy this movie I would have to be at a point in my life where I had seen very few movies. That is something which I consider to be problem.

The writing is by far the weakest point. My research tells me that this story was not bound by the truth, but rather that the facts were cast aside for the sake of meaningless, manufactured drama. Even if everything in this movie did actually happen as told, which it did not, then it was a bad idea to make this story a film for others to experience. Too many clichés happen in this movie to list them all, an absolute annihilation of lazy storytelling. Let's say, purely for the sake of argument, that this movie did actually happen as told, in that case it was a bad idea to translate this story to the big screen. The reason being that it comes across as bad storytelling, which makes it unfit for adaptation. Either way, it just doesn't work.

The performances are absolutely fine, never good enough to make me care about the characters. Although in fairness I would attribute that more to the writing then the actors, who did just fine for what they were given. Nobody stands out as good, or even bad for that matter.

The cinematography and directing in this movie is so unbelievably, perfectly average. While nothing stands out as good or inspired, nothing ever stands out as bad, thus helping the movie to feel extremely uninspired. While the cinematography and directing in this movie were serviceable, the lack of originality ultimately helped to make the movie feel even more bland.

There were frequent attempts at humor in this movie, which failed as often as they arose. Their attempts feel very worn out, and extremely childish. It was such an embarrassing attempt, as though no thought or effort was put into it.

In this movie they build so much hype surrounding this one song, that by the time I finally heard it, I felt disappointed. The song was perfectly fine, it wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was perfectly fine. If you have already heard the song before then this probably will not be so glaring to you. I can't hold this against the film though, considering precisely how subjective music is, I won't dock the movie points for that.

On top of all I just mentioned, this movie bored me. It even bored me so much that it put me to sleep for five to ten minutes. Now I wouldn't have fallen asleep had it not been late at night, but a good movie would have kept me awake. I've been there, it's late at night and I'm getting tired, but the movie or show that I'm watching is so good that it keeps me awake, because I'm so invested in it. This didn't even come close to doing that, it put me right to sleep. I've literally never fallen asleep in a theatre before, until this one. I actually believe I would have had a better experience had I been asleep for the whole movie, but unfortunately I saw over 90% of it.

To anybody that says this movie was made for Christians, and should not be judged by anyone else, I strongly disagree. If you need to belong to a certain group of people to enjoy a movie, then that movie has failed. Movies should be transcendent, and being nonreligious as I am, this movie wasn't. Even taken out of its religious context, it fails just as a film. While this movie never actually annoyed me, I have to call it on its faults. This movie fails to bring anything good to the table, while reusing overused clichés and story elements to a point of unshocking blandness. If you haven't seen any movies before, maybe the problems won't stand out to you, maybe it'll even come across as original. But if you have ever seen a film in your lifetime, this comes across utterly meaningless. Don't waste two hours of your life that you'll end up quickly forgetting about, your time means more than this.

This movie pulled me into the story 100%. The first few minutes was sweet. The remaining had me glued. Quaids performance brought the best out of everyone. One of the best Christian movie to date other than Hacksaw Ridge.