By Emilio F
Director: Stuart Hazeldine
Cast: Sam Worthington, Octavia Spencer, Tim McGraw, Radha Mitchell, Megan Charpentier, Gage Munroe, Amélie Eve, Avraham Aviv Alush, Sumire Matsubara, Alice Braga and Graham Greene.
Rating: Poor.
British director Stuart Hazeldine brings the drama “The Shack” and despite of having interesting moments it was not good enough for me.
Based on the novel by Wiliam P. Young, the movie is set in the Northwest and tells the story of Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington) a married man who suffered a tragedy of losing her daughter during a camping trip.
Mack is filled with bitterness and grudge to the fact that he blames himself for the lost of her daughter. One day he receives a mysterious message in his mailbox inviting him to go to the shack where the events of the tragedy happened.
He ends up going where he will have an encounter with Papa (Octavia Spencer) and his sons Jesus (Avraham Aviv Alush) and Sarayu (Sumire Matsubara).
This will represent an opportunity from Mack to finally forgive himself, to stop judging others and finally have a personal encounter with God that will transform his life radically.
The main problems I saw with “The Shack” was both the writing and the directing of the film.
The script by John Fusco, Andrew Lanham and Destin Daniel Cretton was lacking of compelling characters and the pacing was too slow. The use of the flashbacks was completely unnecessary and I felt that the writers were using it as a resource since they ran out of ideas.
The directing by Stuart Hazeldine was not precise and I think he cared more of the visuals instead of focusing in his cast.
Not even a talented actress like Octavia Spencer could save the film. Her character it was the most interesting in the whole film since the rest of them I couldn´t care of them.
Sam Worthington´s performance as Mack was not compelling and he has always had that same expression of loneliness in all his films. I haven´t seen a radical change in him as an actor and I am less convinced of him as a performer.
On a positive note I do believe the movie has a strong message that has to do with forgiveness and I was moved specially at the end of the second act.
Unfortunately the execution of the message was not good enough and the movie not only was too long but it was to slow.
I don´t mind slow films as long as it has a reason to be and I didn´t see that here.
The movie could have had a much shorter length and if more rewrites would have made it could have been an interesting film since it had potential.
“The Shack” is one of the most cheesy films that I´ve seen in this year and I cannot recommend it for it´s directing, writing and performances.