I’ve read some of the reviews already posted (from Christians who are spiteful about the subject through to those who clearly are Anti-Christian and delight in poking fun at believers) . The diverse opinions suffice to stammer you this is not as simplistic or poorly done a film as some might suggest. I do not understand the reviews that say they are confused and don’t understand. The movie is hardly that complicated that you can’t score some coherent view of the dwelling.
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NOTE: I may review more detail than you wish. Deem this a spoiler warning, although I don’t give it all away, I wouldn’t want you to feel cheated.
First off: I’m a believer. Yes, I absorb in God, Christ, the Bible, the historic creeds and in the Rapture to arrive (I’m post-trib, for those who care) . With all that, I liked this film. I enjoyed Mimi Rogers’ performance and I enjoyed seeing the accelerate of this insecure character. We’re not dealing with a character who does things in moderation. When she was pre-Christian, she didn’t unprejudiced have sex, she had SEX!, promiscuously, in groups, etc. We learn it’s her device of filling this void she feels, the boredom of her meaningless existence. She attempts suicide. She’s a mess. BUT…she has a vision of “the pearl” and it gives her a sense of peace and soon she’s turned her life over to God and she’s a Christian with a Z for ZEAL, evangelizing anyone she can–on the job, on the phone, friends, strangers. To some believers, this seems quite exquisite and laudable. To some, it will seem queer and immoderate. I judge that’s piece of the interest. Where is this woman going now?
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The movie has this haunting air about it. You collect a sense of being on the edge of doom, which is pleasant given the subject matter. Even when she’s all aglow and talking about God, you regain the sense this character is rushing headlong into another type of excess. The character may have found something that gives her purpose, and a stability, but something about her is detached unbalanced emotionally. Even her “peace” is an excessive peace. Tragedy befalls her–SPOILERS–stop reading if you don’t wanna know:–when her husband is murdered in a killing spree at work, and mild she keeps this unusual still. You don’t peruse her really shatter down or do anything a normal grieving woman–Christian or otherwise–would do. It’s rather spooky.
When she has visions that beckon her to the desert, visions that gave me the willies and seemed kind of unpleasant, like a haunting–visions that have even her church’s Prophetic Boy warning her that they stand unconfirmed by other believers and might be from Satan–we have a growing suspicion that something will go terribly evil.
And it does.
One can perceive at this tale as the descent into madness of a never very stable woman and wonder if anything in those last minutes is steady or if it’s all imagined, sanity banished.
From a Christian perspective, I rob enjoyment in a more literal reading that, despite any directorial arrangement is the most taken away from the film. This is a woman we’ve seen crack up, a woman whose been kept in check by her faith, her husband and her church. When she loses her ties to a husband, who never had that queer, glazed sight like the main character, and when she then distances herself from the accountability and safety win of a church by heading for the wilderness, and then when she allows her faith to buckle, she’s left with nothing to discontinuance her from rashness and crazed decisions.
What should this woman know? She should know from her church sermons that to go into the desert is typically a designate of temptation to come: Jesus went into the desert and the devil tried to procure him to fade away from his mission and disobey God. Here, we scrutinize a woman who is tempted, perhaps not by Satan, but by her absorb desires. She wants to be raptured. She wants to go to heaven. She wants to be done with life down here. She wants the culmination of her faith. She’s tried to die before and failed, she wants to go to the better station. The temptation is gargantuan, so gargantuan, she forgets simple admonitions she surely knows by heart–
Thou shalt not end, thou shalt appreciate the Lord thy God, thou shalt not keep the Lord thy God to the test.
A simple prophetic warning that is uttered by the Prophet Boy and subsequently by the character’s daughter, one that is ambiguous at best–”Don’t request God to meet you halfway”–is hooked, as any advice can be, to suit one’s emotional needs or fears.
To Christians, some things will irk. For instance, the innacurate rendering of a notorious Biblical doctrine/verse: We care for Him because He first loved us. Well, here it becomes, “He loves us because we care for him.” A total turnaround of truth.
The Controversial Ending: To any orthodox (not as in Greek Orthodox but as in traditionally doctrinal) Christian, the ending is not controversial. Are we suprised that God both showers grace and forgives at the last exiguous or that he implacably judges and condemns? I consider not. We know He does both.
However, God shows his grace by giving the character multiple opportunities to effect a different decision. Providentially, someone she knows from her past shows up approach the raze. Then another character counsels her. Then another gives her an example. So many chances….Then character chooses her final fate, all the while unwilling to glimpse where she is at fault. It’s easier to honest blame God.
The director/writer may have meant this to be Anti-Christian. Dunno. I didn’t HAVE to rob that away from it. I could resolve to glance it as an examination of a particular character with specific weaknesses and how it manifests in the context of Christian eschatology. The other Christians aren’t shown being cruel or harsh or encouraging disastrous outcomes. Ultimately, this is about this ONE woman. One woman’s choice. A very pro-choice film, actually. And the ending may cheer fans of INVICTUS, but it will perform most of us feel pity.
If one wants to gape it as a mental degeneration of a disquieted woman, that works, too. But I don’t judge it works as well as accepting the ending as “valid”. The film’s power works only if the woman’s choice is a true-life scenario and not the mental figment of a lunatic.
The Rapture can lead to fruitful and racy discussion after viewing, even for believers. I recommend it.
Sharon (Mimi Rogers) is a phone operator who leads a hedonistic lifestyle of swinging sex. But she’s empty and tired inside. She discovers a religious sect who follow the prophecies of a child (”…and a child shall lead them…”) about the rapture, the second coming of Christ and judgement day. She is hesitant at first, but after a reach suicide, she crosses over and becomes “saved”. She marries an veteran boyfriend from her past (David Duchovney) and has a cramped girl. When tragedy strikes and she’s disturbed by an apparent vision, she steadfastly believes the rapture is here and takes to the desert with her child to await God. There, her faith will be set aside to the ultimate test. While some may earn this film arty, far-fetched or even pretentious, I found it generous and quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Rogers is honorable as Sharon and believable as a current woman who has questions about faith and God. Duchovney is also reliable as Randy who sticks by Sharon because he loves her. The film has horrible moments to be certain but it has a dream like quality which gives the subject matter an eerie edge. There are times when it even approaches animated. For those who appreciate absorbing films that leave you talking about it later, this is one to gaze. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll contemplate about it. “The Rapture” is not a religious film nor is it preachy. It takes no stand on anything really but it does leave you wondering about faith and what heaven is. The DVD has interviews with Rogers and others fervent in the film. Recommended and very watchable.
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