His Only Son

I finally had a chance to see this and I liked it. Is it a great film that can be ranked among the great film makers? No. The pacing is poor, the structure isn't great and some of the acting... well is amateurish. But consider the fact that this is the producer, writer directors first major film. So I'll give him a break there. The visuals are stunning. The actress playing Sara really brings it, and delivers a great performance. The actor playing Abraham, knows about one expression it seems. While this story plays out in a few pages in Genesis, it would be a challenge to stretch that material out for an entire feature film. So there was some filler that does not appear in the bible it does not add or detract from the story fortunately. There was plenty of emotion to be found and I did find the film up lifting. Give it a chance.

This movie made up elements and left out such important ones. God's covenant with Abraham, God's speaking with and providing for Hagar, the visitation by the Lord and prophecy of Issac's birth in the coming year (when Sarah laughed, giving Issac his name). I would have preferred the story to be told linearly so we could have agonized with Sarah over her infertility, rejoiced at Issac's birth then really felt the gut punch when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Also I would have liked to have seen more clearly portrayed Abraham's faith in God's promise that Issac would be the seed to generations and therefore God might even resurrect Issac if necessary. (Hebrews 11:17-19). The movie fell short of my expectations, but I'm glad it has spoken to so many. Hopefully the director will consider sticking more closely to scripture in his future endeavors.

It is often said that scripture interprets scripture, but most of us are working with incidental fragments from a rather large book. This writer takes one of the toughest messages and manages to assemble the supporting chapters and events without becoming bogged down, overwhelming the novice or boring the expert. I know the story of Abraham and Sarah quite well, and bought tickets with the idea that I would suffer through a low budget interpretation for a good cause, but it was a great show; I walked away feeling like I met the characters and gained new perspectives on the message. Nice segue into the Gospels, great message for young and old, light on the graphic stuff and excellent for conversation after the film.

This movie was so wonderful to watch, and the acting very well done. I was worried it would be too slow, but it followed the scripture and added, similar to The Chosen, some possible encounters on the three day journey.

Loved the way Jesus was a parallel to Abraham's story.

God's only son was perfect. The old testament characters were not, but God used them and kept His promises. I hope more movies like this will be made.

Be sure to read Genesis and talk to friends about the references in the New Testament that lead back to the old. God is still the same today, and seeing this movie is worth your time.

4 stars for being about 40% accurate. Before making the movie, they should have read Genesis first. They got the basics of the story in there, so congrats I guess. However, this was a very dark, dreary and depressing adaptation of events, polluted with fictionalized (even darker) side stories that made no sense. And straying from the true timeline of Genesis, Sarah looked about age 40 and Abraham 50 at the time of Isaacs' birth. Not too impressive as far as miracles go. Did the writers of this story think a 90 and 100 year old Sarah and Abraham respectively was too far fetched (even for God)? And the Abraham and Sarah portrayed in this story looked like filthy Neanderthals with face tattoos and lived like dirt poor vagabonds. The Abraham and Sarah of the Bible were blessed by God, who prospered them with wealth, land, cattle, and many hired servants. Abraham was a patriarch and founder of a great nation. This was a very bleak portrayal of a great man of God and inaccurate, underwhelming vision of what is one of the most powerful stories of faith in the Scriptures.