Prayer at the Movies

Did you see The East this summer?

Neither did I, but in Christianity Today Patton Dodd says that the overlooked, gritty thriller was all about prayer:

Efficacious prayer isn’t The East‘s message; it’s just the film’s basic narrative assumption. A first-act prayer determinesThe East‘s trajectory no less than it drives Frank Capra’s beloved holiday noir It’s a Wonderful Life(1946). Remember how It’s a Wonderful Life opens with the sounds of people praying for George Bailey, and how the rest of the movie is, in a way, the story of how God and an angel named Clarence answered those prayers? The East—a sexy, gritty thriller infused with the politics of Adbusters—works pretty much the same way.

Now I think I’m going to have to rent it!