Seasons of Gray

So it starts off OK but then in the space of about 10 minutes 20 minutes in it peters out into very bad. I switched it off at the point his bosses wife who lets be fair is a bit of a monger, steps into the lift with the clairvoyant chap and starts flirting with him and u realize that those pretty bad bits you'd glossed over in the first 20 wouldn't come into fruition.

Unfortunately they do. I then realized it was like watching a mediocre 1980's American soap.

So the people who gave it this peoples award are probably not the people you'd take much substance from in normal life.

This biblical story of Joseph and his brothers is uniquely portrayed by Brady Gray and some real characters that anyone could relate too. This is how the story would play out if it had happen today. The dream sequences, the brothers removing him from the family and Brady starting a new life are all superbly done. I was surprised by the good acting and all the characters seemed real to the story line. This 90 minutes flick could of went longer just to keep distance between Brady's prison time and his returning back into the work force and meeting up with is brothers again. The main quality I took from the movie is that patience is a powerful character trait. I can't wait to see this one again.

The Old Testament story of Joseph and his odyssey from being cast out of his family right through his reunion is given a nice Texas twist in this Christian film with Andrew Cheney enacting the modern day Joseph.

Brady Gray is the second youngest of six boys and the first born of his dad's second marriage. He's the favorite and instead of a coat of many colors he gets a brand new pickup truck as per what Texans prize. That sends the other brothers over the edge and they beat him and send him on his way in the back of a truck across the state.

After that if you know the story of Joseph you know what's going to happen. One of those includes being falsely accused of attempted rape and as per modern times he's sent to the joint.

This is where the story gets dicey. Cheney gets all friendly with some black prisoners which just doesn't happen in prison, especially in red state prisons like Texas. And he's a sex offender. Scripture or no scripture you KNOW what happens to them in prison.

Cheney heads a nice group of unknown players in this ensemble. But I don't this makes it from church audiences.

This movie is not for the faint-hearted. It involves many extremes, from butterflies to extreme violence. Usually violence does not combine with a Christian movie, but what Brady suffered by the hands of his brothers, is possibly not far from what Joseph suffered some 4000 years ago. Many, if not most details of this movie do obviously not coincide with the biblical story, but the movie never claims this nor is a close match required, because it is framed in subtle allusion.

PROS

+ Excellent actors. Brady is especially excellent.

+ Great plot.

+ Chris showcases the good samaritan, a behavior rarely seen in our age.

+ Wonderful testimony of reconciliation, of overcoming hurt and pride. And a good testimony of what damage broken marriages can cause.

NEUTRAL

• The scene were his brothers nearly beat him to death is hard to bear, and a car in a lake without a body is not credible, but it still serves its purpose - in a similar way Joseph's coat was used to simulate his death.

CONS

• I disliked the parallel drawn from a real estate agent to the Pharaoh's palace, but this is without doubt how the world thinks in terms of status. And it would not have been credible that Brady would have worked under the president of the US just years after starting a new life. But maybe here the movie should have taken a greater leap of faith and indeed portrayed a closer parallel to the biblical account.

Overall a clear recommendation.

We saw Seasons of Gray at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival last month, where if won the Audience Choice Award by a landslide. Granted, I cannot professionally assess the technical aspects of film making, but from my lay perspective, it was top notch! I was too engrossed in the story to come up with any criticisms.

We all LOVED the movie--the actors of the three lead characters, Brady, Kate and Chris, were perfect for their roles and did a fantastic job interacting. If Courageous were not entered in the contest as well, Seasons of Gray would have had my most enthusiastic support. (I hated that picking the one excluded the other, but am truly grateful to have that problem year after year as a result of the excellent quality of submissions to the Festival. I was comforted that Courageous won Best of Festival.) This is good storytelling: characters that drew us in, that made us laugh and cry and love and respect them, and a movie experience that stays with us and makes us eagerly look forward to watching it again in theaters as well as buying the DVD for ourselves and to give away as gifts.

I'm looking forward to more movies from Watermark Films!