By God's Grace (2014) User Reviews

Only one spirit this time around

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 2 December 2017]

During December we are always destined to see many versions of the Charles Dickens Christmas Carol work in all kinds of variations. In By God's Grace young CEO of an air charter service Cameron Deane Stewart gets a visitation on Christmas Eve. Not three spirits as in Mr. Dickens' epic, but only one. A familiar one though, his late sister Savannah McReynolds who died as a child.

In fact she died as a child along with their parents in a car accident. While alive parents KC Guyer and Angela DiMarco raised the kids on certain biblical values like faith, hope, and charity and the certainty there's a divine plan in all this that we go through. But we do have critical choices to make. Now a lot of time those beliefs more than seem to contradict each other in real life.

So guided by McReynolds, Stewart reviews his life more like George Bailey than Ebenzer Scrooge. The parents were proud of their charitable works as much as the company that Guyer built and founded. One work was a shelter for kids and the Stewart and McReynolds interacted with the kid clients there.

What I found fascinating was the idea that Stewart became hard and cynical. It's just as likely that he become hedonistic. I found more situations like that in my personal experience than the latter.

The actors do perform well and the story within its Christian parameters is a tale well and often told.

Classic story poorly done

[Jackbv123 · 4/10 · 4 January 2019]

The best way I can describe this movie is that everything is overly dramatic and sensationalized. Too many things lead to worst case scenario and everything seems forced. I'm not sure how much was writing vs directing vs acting.

There were some moments just after Grace shows up when the writing and production improved, but then it went back to the overly sensational.

This is a faith based take on the Christmas Carol and there is a heavy faith based message.

Our choices impact others

[vonna-05624 · 8/10 · 30 December 2017]

This film is a decent Christmas story with one major message that I found thought provoking - what we do, the choices we make impacts the lives of others, either for good or for bad, whether we think so or not. What if we had the opportunity to peer into the future and see how our choices not only affect our own life, but others as well?

This film was very well acted, but I had one issue - the way the George bailey became hard, arrogant, unkind, cynical comes across as forced. It is unlikely that the tragedy he experiences could cause a complete 180 turn from the values and ways that he was raised, so it feels as though there is some missing part of the story to explain his decent into becoming a Scrooge. This is a good family film, but keep it for the 10 year old and up.

Good family story message about our choices and how they impact others

[bspitz-27008 · 10/10 · 3 August 2018]

The movie did remind me of "A Christmas Carol" due to his sister showing him the past, present and future in his dream, mixed with "It's a Wonderful Life" where George Baily finds out how his acts of kindness change his entire town.

I liked the consistent generousness displayed by the parents to others in so many ways, in family member in distress, considering the hard work of their company people and giving to those who had no one to care for them.

I really like the straight forwardness speaking about Jesus and God who teaches us to be like Him and give to others in kindness.

This is a good family movie that people can be reminded of the impacts their good deeds really have on the people and world around us.

Great movie with a important message

[haileymorris-60373 · 10/10 · 20 December 2023]

I feel like this is a great movie with a very important message I'm surprised this doesn't have a higher rating it's a must see. And the ending is my favorite part this is just a really good movie sometimes people should just give things a chance without going off of a rating my family did and I most definitely do not regret it will definitely be watching this again next Christmas this movie has a great story line and the ending couldn't have been any better that's a fact !!! And I usually don't write reviews but I definitely had to for this one because it was a great movie I will say there were some sad parts but again the ending makes up for it.

A darker Christmas movie with an important message...

[RichmondBread · 9/10 · 14 December 2018]

I truly am surprised at the mildly low rating for this film. It's funny how very average and boring uninspired Hallmark Rom Com Christmas movies still have a better rating than this. And I do believe it's because it's an actual Christian Christmas movie. Yes, imagine that! A Christmas movie that is actually about Christmas! The plethora of cliched Rom Com Christmas movies that Hallmark puts out offends people less than this does- because, well, this actually about Christmas.

Although we have seen this before - it is basically an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol". While it doesn't bother me when this theme is used , some times it is executed very poorly. In this, I think they did a fair job of it. A young man who lost his sister and family in a car accident in Christmas Eve, is forced to reevaluate his life by the visit of his departed sister. He eventually ends up having a change of heart, and decides to run his father's company in a more endearing manner.

Now one thing that does bother me about the film is that it is depicting the lead actor's dead sister as communicating to him about his Christmas past. This is definitely not Biblical. However, perhaps we can deduce that the girl appearing as his sister is actually an angel. Some times angels do appear as loved ones if they want to get a certain message across.

The script and dialogue we warm. The acting was very good- especially for a lower budget film. I would definitely watch this movie again.