When I first heard that there was a new movie coming out in theaters called The Shack, I immediately looked to see if it was based on a book. I'm someone who prefers to read the book first since I love to read. I read the book and LOVED it so I planned to see the movie as well. I finally got a chance to watch it last night and had to give myself time to think about it before I wrote a review on it.
The Shack is based on William P. Young's bestselling novel about a man who goes on a spiritual journey. Mackenzie (Mack) Philips (Sam Worthington) loses his youngest daughter after a tragedy and he blames himself for it. He enters a time he calls The Great Sadness and wonders where God was when his daughter was taken and why would He allow such a thing to happen. Mack receives a mysterious note from Papa, the name his wife uses for God, asking him to meet Him at the shack deep in the wilderness of Oregon. After much deliberation, Mack heads there and embarks on the most soul-searching, trans-formative spiritual journey he has ever experienced. In addition to Sam Worthington, some other notable actors and actresses in this movie include Octavia Spencer who plays Papa and Tim McGraw who plays Mack's best friend, Willie.
This movie is approximately 132 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for thematic material including some violence. It can be watched in English and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish Subtitles, and English SDH.
I had already read the book when I watched this movie last night and I cried when reading it so I knew it would make me emotional but I didn't expect to cry during almost the entire movie. The Shack is definitely one of those movies that left me emotionally-satisfied and, if you are a crier, I would definitely grab a box of tissues before watching this. I thought the acting was phenomenal and I loved how beautifully this movie was done. I feel it followed the book pretty closely so if you are mostly interested in watching the movie instead of reading the book, I think you will still be able to really enjoy it. I'm glad I read the book first so I knew what to expect and it was nice to see how the movie was done, as opposed to how I pictured it in my mind.
If you've read the book and loved it, I highly recommend watching the movie. It's not scary necessarily and the violent acts aren't shown. Most of the violence is hinted at based on our knowledge of the subject (a child abduction) but there are a few things shown after everything's happened. Those parts were hard to watch but the rest of the movie was so good that I will definitely watch it again. I have a friend who is eager to see this as well since we both loved the book!