CS Lewis: The Most Reluctant Convert

source: CS Lewis: The Most Reluctant Convert

Ill start with the film and end with why I feel I was a bit cheated by this production. C. S. Lewis the atheist finds solace within Christianity a faith of which I admire a lot. The film depicts his changing thought process based in the Christian ideals and how he applies this to his writing. I grew up reading all his books many times except one which I read once but I'll come to that later. As a film and production its a TV movie much in the style of a BBC production so not cheap American plastic but not expertly done either. Its a thoughtful film about the life and the mind of C. S. Lewis so it meanders along with nice backdrops and if your a fan of the books it creates a nice back drop or back story to the man behind the books. The acting is so so, the score is average. The story misses out so much though, the story is written from a purely Christian perspective. Even when they try and present this delicately its still heavy handed. Basically it tells us how he got to the stage of him writing these classic and brilliant children's stories which are basically biblical in nature. Its all black and white, he is an atheist and has struggles, he takes on Christianity he reads and learns and writes and produces classic books. What we don't see is his true dark side or the dark side he is escaping from, his manic depression, his anxiety and many other psychological issues he dealt with. The biggest flaw for me is the film does not continue through his writing career,from that joyous high of discovery and writing his earlier books to the very dark place he ended up in. This brings me onto the aforementioned point earlier, by the time C. S. Lewis wrote The Last Battle he had succumbed to the same problems he started with. Along his journey of faith and enlightenment he lost that faith and slowly created worlds that became more brutal, more cynical and less based on faith. This culminates in The Last Battle, the book I have only read once and never want to go back to. It was a book about his loss of hope his loss of faith and the end of everything. A true C. S. Lewis film/biography would choose to explore all of this rather than just take the happy enlightenment. If a Christian based production could pull that off and explain it and give us hope and a way of dealing with that then this would be a triumph. Instead we are presented with a fairly slow endorphin high that fails to take into account his slow and morose endorphin low. I still reread all his books every few years but like this film that I won't watch again. I will never reread The Last Battle, Ill leave that as a memory of a 14 yr old and pretend it never happened. If only.....

I am a fan of CS Lewis and of the Fellowship for Performing Arts. I have seen The Most Reluctant Convert on stage. It is an excellent stage play. The movie version is faithful to the stage production. But when utilizing a visual medium, I think the script could have been augmented to be less monologue and have more of an emotional connection through the interaction of the actors. I believe the other actors are probably excellent and I would love to have seen more. But otherwise the production quality was very high and Max McLean did a beautiful job reflecting CS Lewis' spiritual journey.

Beautifully shot, largely in Oxford, the film opens up C. S. Lewis's spiritual journey from atheism, to theism, and ultimately to faith in Christ. Cambridge also played an important role in Lewis's life, but given that the focus in this film is his conversion, Oxford takes centre stage. McLean's energetic and sustained performance as Lewis is lucid, engaging and warm. He brings to life the great writer's sharp sense of humour, as well as the depth of his thinking. In bringing us closer to Lewis's inner world, the film as a whole does not disappoint. His is a story that lifts hearts and minds from the vicissitudes and darkness of our contemporary world. Under the shadow of conflict and personal loss, as the film recalls, Lewis's own day was troubled too. But his spiritual biography directs our attention to 'news from a country we have never yet visited'. Good news. It is important for us that this story is told, not only in London and Oxford and Cambridge and New York, but here in Belfast, the city of Lewis's birth. It is a homecoming that we treasure.

This is easily one of the most charming films I've seen in a really long time. Brilliant acting by everyone on the cast. Quite funny in many places. Stunning cinematography of Oxford especially. I was especially impressed that an independent film like this shows absolutely no signs of its limited budget at all; small details like the costumes were not anachronistic, which is usually the case with films made on a shoe-string budget. All round, bravo!

Excellent film version of the one man play by an organization called Fellowship for the Performing Arts. Extremely well made and thought provoking. Max Mclean is Jack Lewis the man who wrote the Narnia Chtonicles.

This feature movie is a top notch production, well acted, filmed and cut. The score accentuates scenes emotionally very well, without getting the front stage. The scenery is gorgeous, so there is a lot of visual appeal. The mood is a bit melancholic and the story telling breaks a few rules in an unexpected way. The main character strolls in and out of his own memories and in the beginning and the end of the movie, literally in and out of the movie set. Should you take your kids to it? Maybe. There is not much violence, although there war scenes. The word sex is mentioned a few times, but nothing more than that. I was more concerned with little ones being bored of the monologue, but unlike the one man stage play, the visuals keep the story very interesting, but still at slow pace. In conclusion.... I think the closing conclusion drawn by the main character brings the whole thing together very well, if not triumphant. Bravo!

My wife and I were part of a full house for the first showing at our theater. The movie was beyond our hopes and expectations. Acting is superb, costumes are perfect, music is just right. We loved the way they maintained the feel of the "one man show" while telling this amazing story of one of our favorite writers. Well done!

This movie presents a rant of an ageing writer of his path to Christianity, clearly showing the lack of being able to think for himself, but rather relying on what others have written or spoken. The character assumes that what has been said to him or what he has been read, must be true because he cannot muster enough independent thinking to find flaw in the statements made, and he is not able to figure out for himself what life is all about. The movie probably does explain why he was able to write the Narnia books, as clearly he does not see any requirement for anything to be able to be logical and reasonable.

This movie will take the world by storm if it gets out. Christian movies usually don't get much play. Passion of Christ showed that to be a big mistake. If churches come out it will succeed. C. S. Lewis was an atheist at the start of his journey. I had no idea. I read the Closet series and loved it as a kid. It influenced my life. His discussions with other brilliant minds of the time both Christian and not are legendary. Great movie and great man!