Shack, The (2017) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Fantasy

A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called "The Shack." -- After the abduction and presumed death of Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, Mack receives a letter and suspects it is from God, asking him to return to The Shack where Missy may have been murdered. After contemplating it, he leaves his home to go to The Shack for the first time since Missy's abduction and an encounter that will change his life forever.

Storyline: After the abduction and presumed death of Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, Mack receives a letter and suspects it is from God, asking him to return to The Shack where Missy may have been murdered. After contemplating it, he leaves his home to go to The Shack for the first time since Missy's abduction and an encounter that will change his life forever.Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 16, 2017 Call me a curmudgeon, but I chafe at times with regard to films that take some kind of personal tragedy and then attempt to give it "meaning" by having the victim of said tragedy undergo some kind of life altering perspective change due to Divine meddling. This kind of plot setup tends to ignore a salient element of the tragedy itself: if some Divine being is "in charge", why did He allow the tragedy to happen in the first place? There's a certain sanguine aspect to some of these films that asks the viewer to simply leap over this hurdle to get to the "real" message, which is basically "put on your big boy pants, deal with bad things that happen, and rejoice in the beauty of life." Now, don't get me wrong—that's a perfectly worthwhile message, and one that is perhaps needed now and again, especially for those wallowing in some long ago trauma who might admittedly need a bit of a metaphysical kick in the keister. But it also seems downright churlish, especially in the context of something like The Shack, where a guy named Mack Phillips has already suffered through a roiling childhood with an abusive parent and who then has to deal with the horrifying death of one of his own children. The Shack is so fraught with melodramatic elements that once the calm and nurturing presence of Olivia Spencer as a deity named Papa shows up, it's like trying to smear some healing salve on a fatal wound caused by an assault rifle. Kind of interestingly, the source novel on which the film is based came under some withering attacks not for the basic plot but instead for supposedly "heretical" presentations of Christian doctrine, perhaps due at least in part to the concept that the Holy Trinity may in fact have a female element that is not the Holy Spirit.

There are a couple of problems with the traditional "why bad things happen to good people" formulation that's underpinning much of what happens in The Shack. First of all, while not really that shaded, it's at least hinted that there's a bit of "grayish" morality in Mack's own past that at least gives the character some commendable ambiguity. But more importantly, and in a trend this film shares with similarly themed "metaphysical" outings, the answer to that troubling query is typically only answered with platitudes that in fact answer nothing. Those platitudes are mixed with the sort of FX wonderment that is supposed to evoke awe in the audience but which comes off as kind of a cheap trick. There are mystical elements galore, including Mack receiving a note in his mailbox from "Papa", the nickname his murdered daughter used to call God, this despite the fact that there are no footprints in the snowdrifts surrounding the mailbox. Later, when Mack visits the shack where his daughter was killed, it transforms from a wintry horror movie scene to a floral paradise on a gorgeous summer day, perhaps due to the influence of Jesus, who is kind of a cool surfer dude nowadays. If you're not already rolling your eyes, if only just a little, you may in fact be able to withstand the patent artifice that underlies a lot of The Shack.

Most folks, even those who don't consider themselves particularly religious, have probably at some point in their lives wondered why something is happening to them, or have called out to some unseen force for help, or at least an explanation. It seems to be part of our hard wiring to wonder about the big questions, but The Shack wants to boil the questions down to easily accessible "answers", all delivered in a sort of Reader's Digest amalgamation of clichés and homilies which are okay in and of themselves, but seem almost shockingly inadequate to address the sort of trauma that is part of Mack's tale. It's all well and good that the Deity takes time out of His/Her day to personally minister to Mack, and in fact that may be one of the film's subliminal pleasures, but even this "event" begs certain questions, like, what about the untold hordes of other wounded souls who are traipsing around their own "shacks"?

There are occasional rather interesting stylistic flourishes scattered throughout The Shack, including a kind of almost poetic depiction of the Holy Ghost, here called Sarayu. That portrayal is probably the most distinctive of the trio of divinities in the film, and in some ways the least "New Age"-y. Traditionalists have already been up in arms over the source novel's tweaking of traditional Christian theology, and those folks are probably going to chafe not just at this film's proffering of a female "Head Honcho", but also in some of the film's more whimsical moments, like Jesus teaching Mack how to walk on water.

Despite the kind of hipster ethos that creeps into The Shack, the film can't help but feel mawkish, tugging pretty violently at heartstrings while offering a feelgood antidote to some of life's most staggering questions. Octavia Spencer provides a wonderfully warm and nurturing performance, but even she is unable to deliver lines about living a life unloved without a slight wince at times. Worthington is awfully bland at times in what should be a seriously conflicted characterization. While the FX work at least gives The Shack a bit of a supernatural jolt of energy, director Stuart Hazeldine could have paced the film better. At over two hours, it seems like an eternity.

If there was ever a film which preached to the choir, The Shack is it. If you're a member of that choir, and if you can handle its New Age updates on Christian theology and swallow some of its overly convenient homilies, the film may well provide substantial uplift. Others will probably want to avoid this outing like it's the third ring of Hell. Technical merits are generally strong and the supplemental package above average for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -2.6- The Shack is based on a book of the same name. As stated earlier it does offer a Reader's Digest amalgamation of clichés and homilies which are okay in and of themselves, but are probably only "answers" to those that haven't heard or thought of them before. There are mystical and supernatural elements galore which are necessary to carry the story and preach to the choir. It does tug on your heart string a bit and will be a tearjerker to some, but I'm not convinced that it truly answers the philosophical / religious questions that it raises. It was worth the time to watch but only offered a band aid solution to a lot bigger problem.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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