Monster, a new film premiering on Netflix today, focuses on 17-year-old honor student Steven Harmon (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who’s been charged with murder. It deals a lot with plenty of issues in the cultural forefront: race, peer pressure and America’s judicial system. It’s not really about faith in the way we normally use that word. But it does come into play.
In this clip, courtesy Grace Hill Media, Steve’s mother (Jennifer Hudson) tries to encourage her son through Scripture—a passage from Psalm 28. And through that passage, she encourages him to have faith: Faith in God, faith in family, faith in himself.
“My heart leaps for joy,” the passage begins. It’s pretty obvious in the clip that Steve’s heart is not anywhere close to leaping for joy. It seems, in some ways, like a ludicrous verse to read: He’s in prison. His whole life has fallen apart. If convicted, he’ll be locked away for a long, long time. My heart leaps for joy? Please.
But Steve’s mom knows something: When things look darkest, that’s when we need that sense of joy, of faith, of hope the most.
I’ve not seen Monster yet. (You can check out Plugged In’s review here, of course.) But after watching this clip, I’m eager to do so.
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