Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

A Matter of Faith

MPA Rating: PG-Rating (MPA) for mild thematic elements.

Reviewed by: Larry Amon
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Good
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Teens Family Adults
Genre: Christian Drama
Length: 1 hr. 29 min.
Year of Release: 2014
USA Release: September 26, 2014 (wide—48 theaters)
February 5, 2015 (wider)
DVD: November 3, 2015
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faith

What should you do when your teacher is an evolutionist, and you believe in Creation? Answer

Creation or Evolution—What difference does it make? Answer

Creation SuperLibrary.com
Top choice for accurate, in-depth information on Creation/Evolution. The SuperLibrary is provided by a top team of experts from various respected creationist organizations who answer your questions on a wide variety of topics. Multilingual.

Featuring Jordan Trovillion … Rachel Whitaker
Jay Pickett … Stephen Whitaker
Harry Anderson … Professor Kaman
Chandler Macocha … Evan Carlson
Clarence Gilyard Jr. … Professor Portland
Barrett Carnahan … Tyler Mathis
Justin Michael Brandt … Jason
See all »
Director Rich Christiano — “Time Changer” (2002), “The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry” (2008)
Producer Five & Two Pictures
Distributor Vision Films
Five and Two Pictures

“When worldviews collide, sometimes it becomes… a matter of faith.”

Rachel Whitaker (Jordan Trovillion) is moving out and going to college. Her parents are proud, but sad to see her go. Rachel quickly settles into her new school, and, as a biology major, is all set to take her first biology class. The class is taught by Marcus Kaman (Harry Anderson), a popular professor who teaches Evolution. Rachel also promptly finds a romantic interest in a boy she meets.

Despite Rachel jumping into the college experience and adjusting well, she seems cautious in her new surroundings. However, it doesn’t take long for her convictions and beliefs to be challenged. Unfortunately, Rachel seems to yield somewhat in her beliefs, and this puts distance between her and her parents, especially her father.

When Rachel’s father, Stephen Whitaker (Jay Pickett), learns the professor is teaching Evolution, he drives three hours to the college and confronts him. In return, the professor challenges him to a public debate, which he reluctantly accepts. Stephen is concerned about his daughter’s lapse in her Christian walk, but Rachel is mostly embarrassed by her father and pleads with him to drop out of the debate. What will happen at the big debate? It’s Creationism vs. Evolution, and the stakes are high. Sides are drawn, and the audience for the debate is growing as the school paper, as well as the local press, gets a hold of the story.

This is a Christian film that is fairly family friendly. There are a few conversations in which some of the young men hint at making a move on Rachel, in a not so innocent way, but these are only briefly mentioned.

The movie makes some sound theological points about how we live our faith. Evan, a strong Christian student and acquaintance of Rachel, makes a point of saying that some people become Christians as a matter of addition rather than submission. He explains that some people just add Jesus to their present lives, rather than submitting their lives to Him.

I watched “A Matter of Faith” with my family, and my feelings about it are mixed. What is being taught in our schools and colleges, and especially as it relates to Evolution, is an important topic and one that has been addressed in films, such as, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” and “God’s Not Dead.” Despite these recent films, there is definitely still more room to explore the topic.

Unfortunately, I found the movie uneven. The ideas and structure of the film hold a lot of promise for an inspiring and entertaining story. For the most part I found the performances of the actors to be well executed. What I don’t like is that the story, especially in the beginning, jumps around too quickly without bringing the audience in enough to get to know the characters or situations. The other major issue I had was with Rachel’s father. At times, he appears to be several decades out of step with what’s going on in the world. For a Christian, that might not be so bad, except that it just doesn’t seem believable or relatable that he is shocked and surprised that a public university would teach Evolution. He should have expected this and prepared his daughter for it, especially as a Biology major. I certainly would have.

Overall, I like the plot, and I enjoyed some of the powerful lessons and conversations. The problems with the flow of the film and the believability of some of the characters do detract from the story, though. I was especially disappointed that the debate scene seems to end abruptly. A more developed scene here could have a gone a long way. The film does move quickly and, despite the previously mentioned issues, it should prove entertaining for Christian families.

Violence: Minor / Profanity: None / Sex/Nudity: None

Official movie site: amatteroffaithmovie.com

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive
Positive—“A Matter of Faith” is entertaining and captivating. The movie starts out with Rachel (Jordan Trovillon), at about 10 years old, playing at a lake with her father Stephen (Jay Pickett). She finds a 50 cent piece. While she is picking up the coin, a boy comes over and takes the coin away from her! About 8 years later, Rachel graduates from High School and she’s off to college. She chose this particular public college over a Christian college, because of the Biology Department’s academics reputation. Her roommate Ally (Stephanie Shemanski) is nice, and they both hit it off. Ally introduces Rachel to her friends, and they all appear to be free-spirited and fun-loving people to her.

***SPOILER*** In her biology class, she is captivated by Professor Kaman’s (Harry Anderson) charisma and likable personality. Rachel struggles to find time to study in the dorm, because Ally keeps inviting her to parties. She begins to study frequently in the college library where she meets Evan (Chandler Macocha) who works in the school news dept. Rachel soon strays away from her Christian faith which includes praying, reading her Bible and attending church.

Her friends and Professor Kaman have pushed God out of Rachel’s life. Rachel’s father, Stephen realizes this, and he and Rachel’s mother, Kimberly (Sarab Kamoo) pay a visit to Rachel at the college campus. While Kimberly is visiting Rachel in her dorm, Stephen is visiting Professor Kaman in his office. Both men are initially respectful, but the tone changes when Professor Kaman realizes that Stephen is a Christian. All Stephen wants to do is ask Kaman to consider other views of the world’s existence, other than evolution. Professor Kaman then challenges Stephen to an upcoming debate. The topic would be Evolution vs. Creation.

Stephen initially declines because he feels inadequate, but later feels he is forced into accepting when Professor Kaman asks if he is afraid to defend his faith?

Rachel pleas with her father not to do the debate because it would embarrass her in front of her friends and classmates. Just when Stephen thinks everyone in that college is against him, he finds help from Evan who is a Christian. Evan tells Stephen there is a former biology professor, a professor Portland (Clarence Gilyard Jr.) who used to teach at the college, and he may be able to help him prepare for the debate of his life! ***END SPOILER***

“A Matter of Faith” is not as predictable as one thinks. There are enough twists and turns in the movie to make it unpredictable. When it comes down to it. Whether one believes in evolution or creation, it is really a matter of faith! I just find creation more believable!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 4½
Keith, age 40+ (USA)
Positive—“A Matter of Faith has a message that is highly relevant and desperately needed for America today. AIG doesn't endorse many movies, even those that are supposedly ‘Christian’ based. We are fully behind A Matter of Faith as it defends the authority of the Bible beginning in Genesis.”
Ken Ham, Answers In Genesis (USA)
Positive—A great movie. Heart-warming, educational, God-honoring, and timely.
Ray Comfort, Living Waters Ministries (USA)
Positive—A clash of worldviews puts a spotlight on the creation-evolution debate in this captivating film. A committed Christian dad, a doubting daughter, and a charismatic liberal professor stir up a lot of tension and intrigue on campus. It has solid Biblical principles and a gripping plot. Kudos to the Christianos for another outstanding family-friendly film.
Tim Wildmon, President, American Family Association (USA)
Positive—Loved it! Not what I expected, when it began. Great story line! Awesome argument, and it got me checking my faith in Jesus Christ. Gave me a good after-movie thought, and now I want to use it for my Bible study group discussions. Could you provide some Bible study guide or questions based on the movie that we could use please…
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 5
Leah, age 22 (Uganda)
Comments from young people
Positive—This movie is so true. Put your faith in God, and he will help you through. I just recently got in a full out debate with my teacher about Creation vs. Evolution. The student vote was half and half. Please pray for me, that I will stay strong and be able to support my faith.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 5
Tammera, age 14 (USA)

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