Dove Review

“The Prodigal” is powerful! In a modern re-telling of the Prodigal Son story from the Bible, this film successfully brings the story into the contemporary age and does so by showing the ugly side of life as well as the beauty of forgiveness.

Pastor Steve loves God and people, and proves it by pastoring a small church which is far from problem free. A woman named Marilyn has been an influential member of the church for years and constantly pries into people’s affairs and in fact, when she first meets Pastor Steve, she tells him his beard needs to go! Pastor Steve suffers from a low salary and yet heavy demands from the church, demands which prevent him from spending as much time as he’d like with his wife and son, Levi. In fact, Levi begins to resent how his family is treated by the church, especially when his dad’s salary is cut for no good reason, just at the time his dad was saving up to buy Levi a car.

Levi is best friends with Tyler, and he dates Tyler’s sister, Abby. However, when his grandfather leaves Levi a large sum of money, Levi and Tyler move out and begin to party and waste the inheritance he received from Grandpa. Abby, a strong Christian, waits and prays for Levi. Levi has lots of “so called” friends hanging around until a tragedy occurs and suddenly his friends all dry up and disappear. Can Levi return to his family and find forgiveness?

This movie focuses on important themes like forgiveness and sowing and reaping, and also on the hardship of ministry. Pastors and their families will certainly enjoy this one as will many other families who enjoy a movie which features hope, no matter how dark the clouds. We highly recommend this film and we are pleased to present it our Dove Seal. This is a movie of hope.

Dove Rating Details

0

Faith

None

0

Integrity

A man punches the pastor in the nose because he believes the pastor told his wife to leave him when in fact it was a different pastor; kids fight and throw punches and roll on the ground; a father and son argue; a man holds a gun on teens a few different times; a car is broadsided and a young man is seen with a bloody face.

2

Sex

A crying teen tells the pastor she is pregnant but the church helps her; a man tells a pastor he wants to be with a married woman and the pastor has to tell him this is wrong; a boy says a teen girl is "hot"; a woman is referred to as a "cougar".

1

Language

H (as a place)-1; G/OMG-1; Crapper-2; Idiot-1; Sucks-1; A man says he hopes another man has the "stones" to do what's right.

2

Violence

A man punches the pastor in the nose because he believes the pastor told his wife to leave him when in fact it was a different pastor; kids fight and throw punches and roll on the ground; a father and son argue; a man holds a gun on teens a few different times; a car is broadsided and a young man is seen with a bloody face.

2

Drugs

Several drinking scenes of teens and young adults with consequences; a young man gets some fake I.D.'s for himself and his friend; a young man drives while drunk and has an accident; the drinking of beer and whiskey.

0

Nudity

None

2

Other

A woman gossips about people in the church; family tensions and stress; a church split temporarily occurs; a death of a young man and grief; gambling and a young man's watch is stolen.