Returning a gift

Before I went to see The Ultimate Gift over the weekend, I read this review in the Chicago Tribune.

When entertainment has a point to make about a life lived well-and such is the case with “The Ultimate Gift”-it’s often hard to tell who’s getting preached at more severely: the main protagonist in need of reform, or the guy/gal holding the hot buttered popcorn.

That’s the lead paragraph, so the reviewer makes it clear he felt preached at.

And so it is with this latest FoxFaith film, starring James Garner (“The Rockford Files”) in the least physically demanding role of his career (and supposedly his last, by the way). As deceased oil tycoon Red Stevens, he’s eternally perched in a leather-backed stool speaking via video to his prodigal grandson Jason (Drew Fuller). Red tells Jason that to collect his share of the inheritance-however large or small that may be-he must accept a series of “gifts.” Mind you, these are actually tests designed to develop his party-boy character into something resembling manhood.

That’s a good story line with a good message.

And the plot, though of the made-for-TV ilk, makes for good discussion fodder if you’re trying to impress life’s lessons on children or others you love.

So what’s the problem? There sure aren’t a lot of films out there that provide good material for teaching life’s lessons. The reviewer even gives the film credit for some of the performances, too. But sooner or later, you knew he’d get back to whatever he resented as ‘preachy.’ And he did…

That said, be prepared to be hit over the head by the message, edifying as it is. Part of me loves being reminded of the Gifts of Friends, Learning, Laughter and Gratitude, especially in a humble context of Christian faith. But as in Frank Peretti’s “Hangman’s Curse,” garish shafts of light permeate “Ultimate” in all the wrong places-here invading chapel scenes of otherwise bittersweet epiphany.

This reviewer seems conflicted. He thinks the message is good fodder for teaching life’s lesson to those you love. But he feels ‘hit over the head’ by it…though it is edifying, nonetheless. And ‘garish shafts of light’? Sounds like an awkward way to describe a scene you otherwise find moving.

Also, there’s an anti-abortion message jammed into one scene with all the subtlety of an avalanche.

Ah, so that’s the problem. 

Just in case you miss it, it’s repeated in the credits too. Some gift, eh?

Actually, yes. ‘That would be the gift of life’, I thought while reading this.

Then I saw the movie. Have to admit that I was on the lookout for the avalanche that was “jammed into one scene” severely preaching the pro-life message, in the words from this review. I almost missed it. Because somewhere around the middle of the film, there was a quietly poignant conversation between the young mother of a little girl suffering from leukemia and the leading character Jason, a young man on a mission to claim his inheritance. And in the middle of that quiet talk, she said her little girl was “the best decision I ever made” in life. I had to ask myself ‘wait….is that the “anti-abortion message” with the subtlety of an avalanche’?!

Yes. Period. Just that line, quietly spoken. “The best decision I ever made.”

Just in cased you miss it, it’s repeated in the credits too.

The credits roll with a different scene in a window up in the corner of the screen that reflects a different gift the young man learned throughout the movie. All together, it led to his inheritance. The gift of work, the gift of money, gratitude, problems, learning, giving, friends, laughter….the gift of a day. So during one of those reflections in the credit roll, that scene came up with several others, and in the few seconds it took to play, that mother said “she’s the best decision I ever made.’ And a bunch of other scenes went before and after it.

If that brief and fleeting line causes such discomfort and resentment in this reviewer, I have to wonder (again) how people who claim abortion is all about choice can actually claim any credibility when they refuse to allow for a woman making the choice for life.

So my review is that The Ultimate Gift was about learning how to see life more positively and profoundly. And in teaching Jason about working, problem-solving, giving, loving….it was ultimately about the gift of self. And yes, that’s some gift.