A dull, preachy, long-winded parable

Anthony Quinn
The Shack
Director: Stuart Hazeldine

Christian-themed movie The Shack would like to be your friend. It invites you to step inside, wants to spin you a yarn about one man’s harrowing loss and his struggle to find a way back to God. It asks you to check your prejudices at the door, as it’s “a bit on the fantastic side”. And it hopes to send you off as uplifted and cleansed as the sorely tried hero of its tale.

What it doesn’t mention is that this will take 132 minutes of your time. That’s long for any movie, but for one that also plies us with humourless sermonising, half-baked pieties and cloddish special effects it feels like an eternity. Based on an American bestseller by William P. Young, it describes the travails of Mack (Sam Worthington), an Oregon-born father of three whose world falls apart when his younger daughter is abducted on a camping trip and murdered.