The Cokeville Miracle (2015)

Those who are anti-religion or vehemently atheist are "offended" by the prospect of a movie that attributes a miraculous event to God and his servants. The problem then is they are intentionally tanking ratings of this movie because of their biases and not because of the quality of the film per se. I appreciate that nowadays anything religious is going to be polarizing, but the absolute lack of objectivity is disappointing and misleading.Is this film top-notch, Hollywood production? If course not, it's budget was a fraction of most blockbusters. So let's be intellectually honest about what this movie is.It's partially a retelling of events that took place in the small town of Cokeville, it's partially giving voice or explanation of why the miracles occurred. It's based on a true story and many religious, real people. If you are offended by religious people, or their interpretations of events, then this movie is not for you. If you can be culturally sensitive and appreciate worldviews besides your own, you'll find a unique story that is inspiring.

Yes, this movie is based on the real life tragedies and events that led to multiple miracles. There was more than one miracle, hence the title is misleading. If you are looking for something clean to watch and is a tear-jerker, this is the one for you. Yes, this is considered a Christian movie. But why is it that this label makes people want to shun away from the obvious itself? This is why you see low ratings and rationales. But a movie that had Satan worship, demons, spells, witchcraft, dead bike riders are claimed as amazing, but I digress. This is an amazing movie, if you take it for what it is then you can have hope in miracles and be more open to what God is trying to tell you. If you take it for a good movie based on real events, then do so. But know that the events are REAL. Keep that in mind.

This movie is Mormon propaganda. Mormons are of course, cultists. They are a Christian cult having some semblance of Christianity but veering far from the path that leads to Truth. Their false prophet, Joseph Smith, was demonically tricked into thinking he was a real prophet in the 19th century and it all went downhill from there to give us the warped false teaching that Mormonism is today. That being said, could there be true miracles in this situation the movie was based on? Well, for one, the Bible says Satan can do miracles. So if Satan wanted to lead people from the Truth of Christianity, and towards the false religion of Mormonism, why wouldn't he do some miracles to get people to go down the wrong path and end up in hell, just as is his plan? Think about it!

Like the title said, the acting and directing were less than stellar - though not truly bad. The story makes up for the other shortcomings though. At the point that I thought would be the "miracle" point in the movie, it clearly wasn't nearly over. That's when the real story starts. I love that TC Christensen chose to make this story into a movie. We need more positive and inspirational movies. Despite the fact that I'm a big fan of theater, love movies, and get frustrated by little inconsistencies or less than accomplished actors, I loved this story enough that I would take it over a very well acted and directed movie with no moral value.We watched it with three of our sons, ages 9, 13, and 17 and the 13 year old said at the end (in his best disgusted-that-anything-tugged-at-my-emotions voice) "Well THAT made me really happy!"