In the Living Years

Young Thom Matthews looks like he's headed to the altar with Meg Gallivan, but at the last minute he starts to balk and instead writes a letter to his long estranged father who abandoned him and his mother years ago. He asks for a meeting, but as he narrates the letter we get a flashback to his childhood and what dear old dad played by John Ashton was life.

A Letter To Dad is a sincerely made effort talking about the evils of divorce. It's never a pleasant thing, but truly there are some people who make a mistake in their choice of mate.

Of course it's also never easy on the kids if there are any. That's a complex subject and I don't think any film could do it justice. This one tries, but there are no easy answers.

Especially when one is hemmed in by fundamentalist Christian parameters.

While eating hot-dog in a square, Dan (Thom Mathews) hits on the gorgeous Sue (Megan Gallivan) and six months later he intends to propose her. However he feels affected by his relationship with his father and yellow in front of her parents. He writes a letter to his father exposing his troubled childhood after her left his family and how his life was affected by his divorce.

I have just lost 83 minutes of my life watching this film, actually a boring, shallow and corny religious propaganda of moral values. The acting is not bad but the screenplay is awful. My vote is one.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Carta ao Pai" ("A Letter to Dad")

This is a family drama about a boy named Dan who writes a letter to his dad when he's in his mid twenties. We see his life done in flashbacks through the letter. Although slow at times, the performances were good. Especially John Ashton (Beverly Hills Cop) Mario Van Peebles and Corin Nemec, who played the teenage version of Dan. The movie has a nice score supported by songs from Christian performers, Jeremy and Thousand Foot Krutch. I noticed that the movie did receive 5 Doves from The Dove Foundation, their highest rating. The movie is a tear jerker and a little over the top at times but I recommend this movie to anyone who's gone through a divorce.

It was so refreshing to watch a film without the usual gratuitous Hollywood garbage that I almost didn't notice the script problems. Given the choice between a few Bible verses here and there, or suffering through another 90 minutes of swearing, sex, and situations, I'll take the Bible verses. Yes, its a little slow and predictable--but then, real life usually is. Being true to life, some of the material might not be appropriate for young children. Actually, the script is not that bad for a first effort. On the other hand, the acting, music, and especially the story make it very worthwhile. The fact that this is a true story makes the message of the film very powerful. As a struggling father of four myself, I highly recommend it for every dad!

I'm a Christian and feel like movies like this one are the exact reason Christian movies fail. The whole movie was under developed on every aspect. It's as if the writer had a general idea of what the movie was about but no idea how to bring it realistically to life. I watched this with my family (4 kids) whom my husband(of 21 years) is a 3 year recovered alcoholic. My mom was married 3 times, my own father was/is absent, step father - abusive alcoholic, last step father was an amazing man... All this to say we all found this movie stupid, unrealistic, and emotionally so detached we actually wanted to fling the disc off the side of the mountain. There are much better family movies, find another, this one is so freaking dumb, honestly.