The Case for Christ

A film set in Chicago in the 1980s. Lee is a newspaper reporter. He covers the courts and the police, has won prizes, and is good at his job. He has no faith. He says openly that he is an atheist and finds religious matters absurd. One day his daughter nearly chokes in a restaurant. A nurse from the next table reaches her and saves the child. The woman describes her being there as a sign. His wife Leslie is affected by it. Leslie starts going to church. Then she is baptised, and there is tension at home. Lee approaches it as a journalist. He starts an investigation to disprove his wife's belief. From there the film becomes an inquiry. He talks to historians, asks a medical specialist, looks at archaeological records and examines manuscripts. At the same time he makes a mistake at work. He gets a court story wrong and it shakes his professional confidence. The line about his father runs in parallel. Lee never spoke with his own father and the man leaves something behind when he dies. What the narrative is interested in is not theology but marriage: its real tension is two people in the same house believing different things and what they will do about it. The structure follows the pattern of a faith film. The narrative makes the outcome plain from the start and gives little room to counter-arguments. The source is Lee Strobel's own book. Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen, Faye Dunaway and Robert Forster are in the cast. Jon Gunn directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes American films on faith and stories about journalism. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a genuinely two-sided argument; the film works in one direction and the opposing view enters only to be refuted.