Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo<\/a>, that\u2019s right\u2026Hercules<\/a>) is an aspiring minister with a girlfriend, Wendy (Kristy Swanson<\/a>), who he leaves behind in their small Midwestern town in order to get in on the ground level of a new business.\u00a0 His justification:\u00a0 more money, more ministry.\u00a0 Wendy\u2019s worst fears are realized as they grow apart and he pursues an investment banking career in which he strikes it very rich.\u00a0 Fifteen years later, he has just been made partner, has bought a $250,000 Mercedes Benz, and is about to fly off to a weekend in Paris with his new fiancee.\u00a0 Everything seems perfect for Ben until, on a joy ride in his new car, it breaks down on the side of a rural road.\u00a0 The mechanic who shows up to help is more than he seems.\u00a0 In fact, Mike (John Ratzenberger<\/a>) quickly tells us (and Ben) that he is an angel sent to help him figure out his life.\u00a0 But Ben, like the rest of the audience, doesn\u2019t necessarily think he has anything left to figure out.\u00a0 Mike, and God of course, disagree.\u00a0 For the rest of the film, Mike and God force Ben into the life that he could have had with Wendy had he not gone down his successful business path.\u00a0 Ben and Wendy are a lower middle class family with two daughters, Kimberly (Debby Ryan<\/a>) and Megan (Taylor Groothuis<\/a>).\u00a0 He graduated with a PhD from Moody Bible Institute and has taken a job as the pastor of his small hometown church in which he grew up.\u00a0 Though Ben fights it kicking and screaming at first, he gradually realizes that the \u201csimple\u201d life he could have had with Wendy is\/was God\u2019s ideal for him all along.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get the good bits out of the way first.\u00a0 The cinematography here is average\u2026a step above made-for-television movies.\u00a0 The acting is just a bit better as everyone plays their part, no more, no less.\u00a0 Debby Ryan plays her role as Ben\u2019s teenage daughter Kimberly a bit too seductively.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe that a Midwestern minister would let his daughter strut around constantly with such a pouty, come-hither look.<\/p>\n There is so much that is frustrating about What If\u2026<\/em>.\u00a0 First and foremost, the dichotomy that it sets up between ministerial and non-ministerial careers implies (asserts?) that the former is inherently better than the latter.\u00a0 Mike stubbornly argues that Ben\u2019s banking career was never the life that God intended for him.\u00a0 Yet we are left to wonder why Ben is so extremely good at it.\u00a0 On top of that, compared to his co-workers, he is even magnanimous in his work.\u00a0 He allows heads of corporations that his company takes over to remain in power, an act of \u201ccharity\u201d that angers his more cut-throat co-worker.\u00a0 Ben even remembers his secretary\u2019s birthday and brings her roses.\u00a0 Though Ben might like his toys and a pretty woman, there is no sense that he is evil.\u00a0 Moreover, if we are expected to identify with Ben, as the filmmakers no doubt intend, then the implication of the film is that God would have us all be ministers\u2026career ministers\u2026instead of successful lawyers, doctors, businesspeople, etc.\u00a0 Far more interesting of a plot would have been to have Mike the Angel \u201cforce\u201d Ben to put his business talents to use for the good of others.\u00a0 In fact, the film seems to betray itself when Ben invests his family\u2019s meager checking account into stock from a company that he knows is about to be overtaken by his former employer.\u00a0 The money he makes from this wise investment (insider trading?) helps repair both the church and his house.<\/p>\n The enduring brilliance of It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em><\/a>, aside form Jimmy Stewart<\/a>\u2018s performance, is the alternate reality aspect of the film, one that What If<\/em>\u2026 completely bumbles.\u00a0 Life<\/em> uses it to show a depressed, suicidal character the value of his life as a businessman who thinks that he has failed the people of his small town.\u00a0 It shows the countless ways in which the lives we lead can bless others, without us knowing it, even when we are not specifically \u201ctrying\u201d to help others.\u00a0 What If\u2026<\/em> takes a businessman and forces him into a life that he didn\u2019t choose and forces him to feel guilty about not choosing it.\u00a0 Though Mike tells Ben that he will always have the choice to go back to his former life, he can only do so after he fully commits to this alternate reality.\u00a0 He may face a choice at the end of the film, but it is perfectly clear that the die have been cast.<\/p>\n Finally, What If<\/em>\u2026 embodies the kind of cultural homogeneity characteristic of much of contemporary Christian cinema that even many evangelicals are beginning to bemoan.\u00a0 In their article, \u201cBeing Fairly Self-Critical About Evangelical Media,\u201d Quentin J. Schultze and Robert H. Woods ask, \u201cWhat would evangelical media say to church and society if they welcomed the stories of the people who are living on the margins of social respectability?\u201d\u00a0 Though they don\u2019t give any clear specific answers to the question, they do argue that these films would be drastically different from the white, solidly middle-class output of much of contemporary evangelical Christian media.\u00a0 The whiteness of this film is even spelled out in the name of the church that Ben pastors, The Little White Church (I kid you not!).<\/p>\n It seems as if Harvest Bible Chapel<\/a> in Chicago funded some of the production.\u00a0 They gave it a prominent place on the home page of their website leading up to its release.\u00a0 What If\u2026<\/em> is directed by Dallas Jenkins, the son of Jerry Jenkins, author of the Left Behind<\/em> series.\u00a0 In fact, Harvest Bible Chapel has recently hired Dallas to be a minister of media<\/a>.\u00a0 He will be in charge of producing and directing forthcoming feature-length films from the church.\u00a0 Such a move signals a growing commitment on the part of megachurches to commit to the resurgent church film movement.<\/p>\n What If\u2026<\/em> (100 mins.) is rated PG for for some mild thematic elements and is in limited theatrical release.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a few things to admire about What If\u2026, the latest in church-backed feature-length films, but unfortunately, plot isn\u2019t one of them.\u00a0 Most certainly inspired by It\u2019s a Wonderful Life, the film takes the alternative universe premise and plays with it in some really odd and confounding ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/357\/2010\/09\/What_If_Kevin_Sorbo_Boardroom.jpg\")
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