Movie Review | I can only Imagine [2018]

I can only imagine is the true and personal story of Bart Millard (played by J. Michael Finley), lead singer of the Christian group, Mercy Me. It is his story and journey which led to the writing of Mercy Me's hit song, 'I can only imagine.' ​

This is not a movie you go to watch to be wowed by an excellent script or acting (although Dennis Quaid gives a superb performance as Bart's angry and abusive father). It is a movie you go to watch to be moved by the transforming work of God in people's messy and broken lives and to witness how powerful forgiveness and the words, 'I am sorry,' are. ​ In an interview with Amy Grant in the movie (played by Nicole DuPort), Bart admits that the song lyrics took him only 10 minutes to write to which Amy replies, 'You didn’t write this song in 10 minutes. It took a lifetime.' Bart's story takes us from an abused and rejected child, (who escaped into a world of dreams and imagination), to a teenager who escaped behind a mask and kept running from himself and others, to an adult who was forced to face his own fears and heart and see God's work of redemption in his life and in the life of his father. 'My dad was a monster. I saw God take him from being the man I hated to the man I wanted to become.' [Bart Millard]

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