Conversations with God (2006)

Chronicles the dramatic true journey of a struggling man turned homeless, who inadvertently becomes a spiritual messenger and bestselling author.

Director:

Stephen Deutsch (as Stephen Simon)

Writers:

Eric DelaBarre (as Eric Delabarre), Neale Donald Walsch (books)

Stars:

Henry Czerny, Michelle Merring, Frederick Charles Canada

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Henry Czerny	...	Neale Donald Walsch
Michelle Merring	...	Daisy
Frederick Charles Canada	...	Man in Audience
Bill Geislinger	...	Angry Man
Suriel Hess-Glover	...	Young Neale
Catherine Rowe	...	Neale's Mom
Sharon DelaBarre	...	Kay
Michele Blood	...	Angry Man's Wife
Greta Oglesby	...	Employment Counselor
Karen Fitzgerald	...	Doctor
Scott Cervine	...	Michael
Wrick Jones	...	Stranger at Tent
Suki	...	Spiritual Woman #1
Margot Robinson	...	Spiritual Woman #2
Jerry McGill	...	Oscar

Storyline

"Conversations with God" tells the true story of Neale Donald Walsch that inspired and changed the lives of millions worldwide. The journey begins after he unexpectedly breaks his neck in a car accident and loses his job. Soon after, we witness his transformation from your everyday guy to a homeless bum struggling just to stay alive. Neale's eye-opening roller coaster ride takes us through his emotional battle to get enough food, make friends and regain his life. And just when things seem to be going his way, they get worse. Feeling like a complete failure in all aspects of his life, Neale, full of anger and bitterness asks God a pile of demanding questions. Much to his disbelief, Neale received his answers! The unworldly conversations that follow end up being read by over 7 million people in 36 languages around the world and counting.

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Plot Keywords:

car accident | writing | writer | tent | telephone call | 

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Taglines:

From the book that inspired millions comes a film that will change your life.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for thematic elements, some language and a brief accident

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 October 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gespräche mit Gott

Filming Locations:

Ashland, Oregon, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$150,355 (USA) (27 October 2006)

Gross:

$422,897 (USA) (1 December 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CWG Productions LLC, Cynthia R. Litman, Esq., Spritual Cinema Circle

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The bus used to take Neale out of the park in the movie was a decommissioned local bus purchased at auction. This specific bus was in service 1991-2 and on the same route that Neale had to travel to get to work, and was thus almost certainly one of the very buses that Neale had taken during the real events depicted in the movie.

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Quotes

Kay: If God had only one message, his most important message to all of us, and you could put it into one paragraph, what would that be?
Neale: [pause] I can fit it all into five words. You've got me all wrong.

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Connections

References Donnie Darko (2001)

User Reviews

Inspiring message gets trampled over by a variety of new-age pratfalls

Proving the so-called spiritual genre still has an awfully long way to go before feeling half has meaningful as underlying content would suggest, this quest for meaning and purpose remains ironically dull for it's intended purpose. Rather then adapting Neale Donald Walsch's massively successful spiritual dialogs, the film version of Conversations with God plays more like a biography, detailing the catalyst behind this reluctant author's unique journey which saw him living on the streets to becoming an international bestseller.

In a film plagued with bad choices, choosing to go the docudrama route proves one of the only wise decisions, producing a few of the Lifetime-worthy affair's only authentic and moving sequences. It is a testament to the inept direction then, when any and all emotional sincerity takes place during the initial struggling and unanimously subsides when relaying the inspirational turn of events that will fail to inspire the viewer. Proving quite contradictory indeed, the more Conversations with God presses on the book's inspirational themes of love, surrender, and other random insights, the less impact any previously watched glimmer of truth seems to reap.

There is just a massive divide between parlaying this intensely personal information in a way that does not feel trite, even laughably condescending, to all but the most ardent of sheep-fans... Meaning, until dedicated efforts into this budding genre begin translating our inner spiritual discussions more believably by refining their techniques into many more subtle shades of consciousness, they will continue to bare the new-age brunt of jokes, contradict what they so earnestly try to capture, and give moviegoers every which reason to extract spiritual qualities from other genres that unconsciously produce this sentiment so much clearer, with a lot less strain. For the few heartfelt moments that detail Walsch's struggle with homelessness, the film rises above the emotional sterile, Hallmark-prone manipulation that the majority seems to be. However, anyone who is not already begging to enjoy this movie, having been a rabid fan of the author's work, has every right to leer in cynical jest at the film's unintentionally ironic tone of detached insincerity.