When war is mentioned, people's minds tend to turn to physical fighting, like World War I and II. Some might even think of the Cold War, where the battles were fought by countries racing to build up their arms cache first. But there is another type of war which is not fought through physical means, but rather with words. Prayer, to be exact.
Elizabeth and Tony Jordan have a rocky marriage. Tony is a successful pharmaceutical sales rep who doesn't miss an opportunity to remind his wife just how successful he is at providing for their family. Elizabeth works for a real estate company, and makes good money on her own, but pales in comparison to Tony. Elizabeth also has a brother-in-law who lost his job, so her sister asks Elizabeth to help for a bit while her husband searches for a job. Elizabeth and Tony argue about whether or not to help them out, among other issues, which drive them further and further from each other. In the midst of this is 10 year old Danielle, who just wants her parents back and for their family to be like it used to.
When Elizabeth and Tony's marriage is at its darkest, Elizabeth meets a client named Clara, who initially wants Elizabeth's help in selling her house. As time passes, however, Clara and Elizabeth develop a deep friendship that turns into more of a discipleship relationship as Clara helps Elizabeth renew her faith in God and fall on his guidance through prayer, mainly through the use of a quiet space Clara dubs the "war room". Elizabeth is resistant at first, but soon she fully embraces the concept and creates her own "war room". As she does she sees some pretty impressive improvements, not only in herself, but in her marriage as well.
To give a review of
War Room, I'm going to have to recall some things I mentioned in my review of
Courageous . I previously mentioned how people have argued that they wished Christian filmmakers would give more attention to the overall production of their films so that they are on the same level as mainstream Hollywood, while others have argued how Christian films tend to not fully portray real life very well. There are still others who have said you can easily watch a mainstream Hollywood film and get the same 'Christian' elements without it outright being 'preachy'. I won't go into too much detail in my thoughts on these, as I already did so in my review of
Courageous. What I will say, is
War Room is a step in the right direction, and while some will still not like
War Room for the reasons I stated above, I feel like others should be satisfied with the effort
War Room makes. It's nowhere near perfect, of course, but I left the theater completely happy with the result.
For me personally, I absolutely loved
War Room. It has what I found to be a pretty compelling story, with interesting (and funny) characters. It's interesting, but the main characters - Elizabeth and Tony Jordan - actually aren't the most interesting characters. I was able to be invested in their story unfolding onscreen, but not as much as I would have liked. It's Ms. Clara who steals the show in
War Room. She felt like the most genuine and honest character out of everyone onscreen. I won't go into too much detail, but towards the end Clara goes into a powerful and moving dialogue meant to be an earnest prayer towards God. To me that is one of the things that made the movie great.
As mentioned above, not everyone will find
War Room good. But for those who want something different that what mainstream Hollywood has to offer, it is a wonderfully done alternative.
