Rated PG
1 hour 50 minutes
Starring: J. Michael Finley, Dennis Quaid, Trace Adkins, Cloris Leachman
Starring: J. Michael Finley, Dennis Quaid, Trace Adkins, Cloris Leachman
I Can
Only Imagine was the highest selling Christian single and
has sold more than 2.5 million albums.
It’s one of those rare songs that crossed over from the Christian music charts
into the Billboard, Country, and the Top 40 charts. There was always a story behind this
beautiful song and it has finally been told.
J. Michael Finley,
plays Bart Millard, the lead singer of the group MercyMe. This is his story of dealing with an abusive
father all his life and a mom who left him with his dad. It’s also about how he worked to make his dad
proud of him in every way but never could and the results usually ended with a
beating. He was on a successful ride in high
school as a football player until an injury ended his college dreams. With nothing else to do – he turned to a
school play and found he had singing abilities.
The story takes off from there as we see him getting together with his
friends and forming the Christian group MercyMe.
But Bart’s story is
one of forgiveness. After years of
having no contact with his dad, he finally deals with his past and goes back to
confront him. What he finds is a broken
man who is dying of cancer. A man that
knows he was a monster. All he wants to
do is to make amends to his son who wants nothing to do with him. But through forgiveness, Bart sees his father
in a different light and after he passes away, all he can do is “imagine” him
in Heaven and what that must be like for his dad to meet Jesus face to
face.
This movie is powerful and so is the song that has become an
anthem for so many people.
