The Preacher's Daughter

I watched the movie on lifetime a few days ago. It started off interesting and had my attention right away. I guess since it was on lifetime I thought she would go crazy, someone would die, etc but I was way off. She basically hangs out with a guy that whispers when he talks(you will know it when you hear it compared how the other person is talking in the room) and supposedly that leads her to move out and hang with another guy. The movie goes from there to barely digging into what happened between the three of them and that is basically the movie. About 3/4th through of the movie I realized nothing was going to happened and it didn't. There wasn't a point to the story at all. THERE WASN'T A POINT TO THE STORY AT ALL. NOTHING HAPPENED. You would think something interesting would happened when she came back home but it really didn't. It was like a boring life story that really didn't change anything except for one thing but who didn't see that coming? And of course she and her father would say no.

The movie is not worth the 6.5 rating. There is a beginning of the movie but that seems to be it. The rest is uneventful besides a few parts here and there.

A sweet movie about a religious family trying to protect their daughter from unwanted influences. However this movie is almost too sweet and too mild for anyone not raised by a fairly well-of, religious and protective family. The movie was by no means unreal, but its a movie I think very few could relate to.

The acting and cinematography was pretty average, and the music reflected the American Bible-belt setting the movie takes place in, which helps set the scene and location, but is a disadvantage to the movies emotional dept, which I think this movie will seem surreal or too tame to provoke enough emotion to make this movie interesting to anyone who is not from a very religious American bible-belt family.

I am from Europe, and have lived in both Bible belt America and America outside of the bible belt. The love shown by the father is touching and the issues raised here are good family value issues, presented in a good clean way for the Bible-belt Christian and for them I might rate this movie a 6 or a 7. For everyone else this movie does not hit enough debts to make it all that interesting and for them I will rate this movie a 3.

Religious-based movie about a preacher's daughter who goes down the wrong path and ends up leaving home, her small town, and the church all together--only to return four years later after she gets into trouble down in Houston.

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I think the movie started off good enough for a B-rated, made-for-TV movie. If you never read the synopsis, you literally have no clue where the plot is going--until you do. Without giving away too much, I say this because there is a point about only 1/4 through the movie that an innocent enough scenario unfolds that turns out, isn't all that innocent. This plot element will be the driving force for the remainder of the movie. Thing is, most viewers, even ones not so bright, will immediately see it. Once that happens, it sucks the life right out of a movie that is already paper thin on plot substance. Even if you don't pick up on this right away, the movie still drags on quite a bit until the end with no real payoff. It doesn't help that the audio and picture quality are awful even for a B-rated movie.

I guess about the only thing the movie has going for it is the very likable characters in the preacher's daughter, the preacher himself, and a young troubled teenage girl that the preacher's daughter befriends.

The daughter (Andrea Bowen) of the pastor of a small town in east Texas (Ron Jackson) comes home after several years in Houston living a wayward life with her drug-dealing beau. She reflects on the chain of events that led to her destructive course and tries to put the pieces back together.

"The Preacher's Daughter" (2012) is an Indie drama that was picked up by Lifetime and aired with the cussing bleeped out and one or two edgy scenes trimmed. Thankfully, the uncensored version is readily available. The story is similar to the obscure and underrated "Beyond the Farthest Star" (2013), but arguably better. While not autobiographical, you can tell writer/director Michelle Mower grew up as a pastor's daughter because everything's so real.

Mower doesn't make the mistake of making a certain character frothing at the mouth with ee-vil. He's basically a decent man, but he has carnal weaknesses and it's a slow spiral into hell. What goes down should've never happened in the first place. Anyone with common sense knows you don't put a nubile young female in a situation where she's alone with a handsome older male for long periods of time. It's literally asking for trouble. The first step in resisting temptation is to not unnecessarily be put into a place of temptation in the first place.

Someone criticized the film as "anti-Christian," but it's not. It's anti-legalism and anti-naïveté, not to mention anti-hypocrisy. One issue is the stifling over-protection of well-meaning parents. Rachel (Jamie Teer) insightfully points out that she didn't know what was worse, having parents who care too much or ones who don't give a hoot at all. Both extremes are not good, but at least with parents who are overprotective their motivation is usually love... and love is the only thing that can overcome the shackles of legalism or libertinism (which are two sides of the same bad coin).

There are little gems of insights interspersed throughout, like the irony of the 'bad' girl being a virgin and the folly of making rash judgments.

But doesn't the overt cussing by a few characters and the sex scene make this an anti-Christian movie? No, it makes it realistic. After all, people cuss in real life every day, including many Christians. I'm not saying it's good, just that it's the way it is. Thankfully, it's arguably not overdone, which is similar to the way a bit o' cussing was included in "John, 316" (2020).

As for the sex scene (which isn't very explicit), doesn't the Bible itself chronicle such scenes, like David & Bathsheba, not to mention Lot's daughters? What about Judah and his daughter-in-law in Genesis 38? Accounts like these depict life in a fallen world, nothing more, nothing less.

One critic said that the film's too tame for non-Christian viewers, but if it were any edgier you'd have the hopeless melancholy of "Gardens of the Night" (2008).

The ending leaves some things up in the air, but isn't that the way it is in real life? This is a slice-of-life in Hannah's spiritual sojourn. If she's wise, there's no where to go but up. Yet that has to do with her NEXT chapter.

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, and was shot in Alvin, Texas, which is just south of Houston, with some scenes done in the big city.

GRADE: A/A-

I honestly don't know how this is listed as a 'TV movie'. It has at least 7 uses of the f-bomb in it. The acting is substandard, it has no 'feel good' moments in it, and the production quality is severely lacking. You keep watching, thinking that there will be a point to the movie, but there never is. It just keeps dragging on and on. I honestly don't know what the writer was trying to get across to people - there is literally no plot to this movie. I truly wish that 'film makers' would think long and hard before releasing films like this one. It was nothing but a huge waste of time and money to produce. There are MUCH better movies to watch, including ones that actually have a point.