I try to be an objective reviewer. Nothing irritates me more than to see some hack at IMDb write "pretend Christians trying to make pretend atheists look bad" alongside a one star rating. There are a lot of "Christian haters" at IMDb that rate every Christian film with one star along with a diatribe on Christianity...but no actual review of the film. Because they obviously haven't watched it. So I generally ignore the bad reviews at IMDb when it comes to faith-based film. People are entitled to their opinions, but it would be nice if there were a way to weed out people whose opinion is not based in fact. You have to watch a movie to review it. Period. Having said that, Let There Be Light just isn't a good film. I wish it was. But following are my objective thoughts on this film.
Dr. Sol Harkens (Kevin Sorbo) is a famous atheist. He debates God at every opportunity...usually to hawk his latest atheist book. His marriage has fallen apart, and his children seem distant. He uses alcohol to numb the pain of having lost a young son to cancer. Following a car accident, he is clinically dead for four minutes. During that time, he experiences a life-altering encounter with his son. His son leaves him with the simple statement "let there be light." While Harkens reconciles his beliefs, he alienates his publicist, but grows closer to his wife, Katy (Sam Sorbo). He also appears to be mending fences with his sons Gus (Braeden Sorbo) and Connor (Shane Sorbo). The family bonds around their effort to launch a "let there be light" app as new tragedy threatens the family.
The whole story is a bit light for me. I have trouble wrapping my mind around a strawman atheist. The conversion seemed a bit uneven to me. Not fully credible. His chemistry with Katy was great, which should be the case, as they are husband and wife. As well as co-writers. Their sons also play sons in another theatrical stretch. It seemed a bit nepotistic to me. The boys weren't bad actors. But between fluffy dialogue and some awkward dialogue, I wasn't really sold. The film is a fluff piece. A feel good echo-chamber type movie. Christians will probably like it a lot. As a Christian film buff, I liked it moderately. It really didn't move me. As a story, it lacked depth. I wanted more.
There were some good aspects to Let There Be Light. The production quality was excellent. I actually enjoyed Sam Sorbo's performance as well. While the whole thing was a bit hammy, she was a bright spot for me. Something about her smile has a warmth and genuineness, that she brightened the screen when she was on. Kevin Sorbo's performance was good as well. The boys were not great. But they were not the worst. The worst performance easily goes to Daniel Roebuck, darling. He was a cartoon. His character was designed to be despised. But not for the reasons he grated on me. He was an irritating kind of flamboyant that made me cringe whenever his character appeared in a scene. The best quality of this film? The soundtrack. There were some excellent musical selections in the film. I think some or all were original pieces. Overall, there was some redeeming qualities.
Let There Be Light received a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. The thematic material included plenty of alcohol abuse, the topic of death and some prescription drug use. I can't recall if there were any other issues that stand out. But that pretty much summarizes the contextual content of the film. The main character struggles with alcohol abuse and it is featured in quite a few scenes. This isn't a gratuitous film, so if you were going to show it to some younger church goers, particularly young teens, you would be fine.
I am going to give this film a split recommendation. I don't do that often. But this is a subjective film, so it is difficult to stick with an objective rating. My objective rating is "go see something else and don't bother renting it." My subjective rating is for Christians. This is an echo chamber type of movie. It doesn't have the teeth to convince an atheist to seek Christ. But Christians might find it uplifting. Even for Christian movie goers, there are a slew of excellent faith-based films out these days. There have been some really spectacular ones like Risen.. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. Being a tad bit generous because of the great production qualities and music, I will go with an even 5/10.
