The Wager

Actor must confront his faith as he withstands trials in private and public. Struggling to do the right thing he loses focus but there is still hope lurking underneath.

This is a low budget movie that looks a bit high budget. (if you can have such a thing). Its well produced & directed.

The acting is good. Randy Travis is not a great actor, but he did well for this part. At first, you think "Randy is a bit one dimensional", but then you realize the part he is playing. In fact, the more the movie progresses, the more depth he brings to it.

The stunts are of the highest quality, the message is timeless and it is well scripted.

One criticism is the length - its a bit too short. But then again, they say a good movie is made on the cutting room floor.

Well done to the producers.

More please !

Let's face it.When it comes to movies that express Christian beliefs and values,you are not going to get the Hollywood heavyweights.There is no one named Depp,Hanks,or Penn.They wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near anything like this.About as good as you are going to get are a country music singer and a few former sitcom actors.With The Wager,it's not about great performances from the actors.As long as they don't just stand around and look like they are reading from cue cards and are giving their best effort,I am satisfied with that.It's not about dazzling special effects.Don't need those.It's about the message,and it is presented well.

The Wager casts Randy Travis as an Oscar nominated actor whose career looks pretty bright. But Hollywood is a most fickle employer and just as things are in high gear it all starts falling apart.

That old adage of it never rains unless it pours sure applies to Randy Travis. He gets into a creative dispute with the director on his current film Bronson Pinchot and walks off. Then his leading lady Candace Cameron Bure won't get any kanoodling as per Randy's faith. And when Candy sees Randy with a little boy who is just there as part of a big brother program in his house, she jumps to all the wrong prurient conclusions. Randy's deeply religious Christian mother is dying and to top it all off he slugs a bottom feeding gossip columnist.

Lindsay Lohan in her best high living days wasn't getting dumped on as bad as Travis nor getting as much bad publicity.

In the end though an unseen power pulls Randy out from the depths and actually allows him to be a real life hero instead of a movie one. If you're a believer you know that God is finally answering his prayers.

The Wager purportedly about the perils of being a Christian in Hollywood certainly lacks quite a bit of verisimilitude. There's one scene in there where Pastor Matthew Barnett is preaching and tells everyone that prayer is better in solitude and quotes the Scripture toward that end. Apparently Tim Tebow never heard that message.

John Hagee the rightwing preacher from San Antonio also appears her delivering sermons on television as Travis seems to get nothing but religious programming when he turns on the tube. Travis has appeared many times in his church, boosting his ministry and Hagee is a part producer of the film.

The Wager will certainly resonate well on the Christian circuit, but for general audiences, they won't find it credible.

I enjoyed this film immensely and it told a very real story about Hollywood and how it can destroy people. Nothing wrong with a bit of fiction, but this story was more - you don't have to be an A-list star to move people and emotionally take them on a journey - I guess I am sentimental and I cried through parts of the film. It almost appears that non-Christians, atheists can have a field day knocking Christian movies - but there was much more than a religious film here - there was a person experiencing real problems due to the Paparazzi wanting a story at any cost. The ability to knock someone down and pin a rumor on them. This story managed to change the view of the Oscar winner, but in real life sometimes the truth doesn't come out at all. Well worth watching!