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Should Christians make movies about the challenges facing the church? Should they let people outside the church see these movies?

That's one of the issues dividing Christian critics regarding The Second Chance, a film written and directed by former Christian rock artist Steve Taylor and starring Michael W. Smith and jeff obafemi carr.

"For about a dozen years … Steve Taylor was the most energetic and unpredictable recording artist in contemporary Christian music," says Peter T. Chattaway (Christianity Today Movies). Taylor's movie, he says, "is neither all that energetic nor all that unpredictable. Some Steve Taylor fans will approach The Second Chance with high expectations, but it probably works best if you don't come to it looking for a 'Steve Taylor movie.' The film does offer a critique of church culture, but without the absurdist satire."

Chattaway says the film "could very well spark some interesting and even necessary discussions. It helps that the film is also skillfully made, from the hand-held camerawork to the note-perfect soundtrack (courtesy of Smith, with help from John Mark Painter and others) and the performances; Smitty in particular acquits himself well in his first major acting role. However, bits of dialogue still sound a little church-movie-ish, and the film's tone and theme, overall, are a bit on the tidy side. Those of us who had hoped that Steve Taylor would be for Christians what Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess was for Mormons—a filmmaker who broke out of his religious subculture through sheer force of quirk alone—will have to wait and see what he does next. For now, though, this may be a church movie, but it's one of the better ones."

Adam R. Holz (Plugged In) says its message is "right on the money" and it has the potential "to become a catalyst for positive personal and corporate change for those who have ears to hear … [The film] offers a realistic, provocative and unvarnished look at the issues of social, economic and racial disparities within the body of Christ. Raw, unapologetic honesty and grittiness … characterize the film which pulls no punches as it addresses hard subjects those of us in the church are sometimes tempted to brush under the rug."

But other Christian film critics would prefer to keep that subject "under the rug."

Willie Magnum (Christian Spotlight) starts out claiming that the filmmakers fail to "rise above TV series mimicry or movie of the week schmaltz and create a great film. The whole piece thumps along from vignette to vignette, eventually reaching a denouement that is nothing approaching climatic … What really bothers me about this film is that it really amounts to a 'dirty laundry' diatribe against the current mega-church bureaucracy that really, in the end, is an intramural debate and ought not be so scathingly aired in public."

Marc T. Newman (Movie Ministry) says, "While the makers of The Second Chance have some good things to say, they have chosen precisely the wrong venue in which to say them. … Themes of racial reconciliation can make for great film. Glory Road was a good example of a movie of this type. But when movies focus on church politics we cannot expect that many people outside the church will want to see such fare. And even if a few do, will they come away with the right message? Filmmakers who share a Christian worldview need to rethink the best way to use the medium to move the Gospel forward. One hint—it starts with a more compelling and accessible story."

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50