An Interview with God (2018)
Well, I’m going to have to admit that this film is as close to the reality of a crisis intervention as I’ve ever seen. And it feels true, too.
From IMDb: “Paul Asher, an up-and-coming journalist, returns home from covering the war in Afghanistan and finds his life is falling apart – his marriage is failing and he’s in the grips of a personal crisis he doesn’t yet understand. Even more pressing, a soldier that Paul befriended in Afghanistan is struggling at home and Paul is desperately trying to help him. But, Paul’s life takes a strange twist when he’s offered an interview that he finds impossible to resist – an interview with someone who claims to be God.”
When ‘The Man’ turns the tables on Paul and effectively starts to interview him, Paul gets upset because he shouldn’t be part of the story. That’s when I began to see a psych session in action. The idea that Paul needed to talk about his situation is what drives the narrative of this film, and it works.
There are three clear examples of Paul’s changing approach to life (and death) and they involve his bicycle. Riding to work after the first interview, he runs a red light without hesitation and gets to the other side without incident. After being told that his time is running out, during the second interview, Paul stops awkwardly at a red light, and sees out of the corner of his eye a white bike with red flowers around it, tied to a post on the curb. After the third interview, his bike has been stolen because he’d forgotten to lock it to the bicycle stand. He has to walk home, and by the time he gets there, his wife, Sarah, has come back to see him. They talk, and begin to heal their relationship.
[last lines]
Paul Asher: [narrating] Having faith isn’t really worth much if you don’t believe. I kept praying, sure. But I stopped looking – or even listening.
The Man: [remembering back to their conversations] What could you possibly do that would be beyond my powers to forgive?
Paul Asher: So yeah, I see it now. Definitely a sign…
Conclusion
An Interview with God is a thought-provoking film that connects conflicts of faith to the miracles that can occur when we are confronted with a living hope. (Universal)
As the landlord of their brownstone says at the end, “Miracles happen all the time.”
One last thing:
(Not from the script, but definitely worth thinking about…)
[From “The Truth Behind the Bible Code”:] In fact, quantum theory allows for, and experiments have validated, the following astounding principle: Any aggregate of matter may spontaneously “teleport” from its present location to any other place in the universe for reasons unknowable from any information in the physical universe and via “influences” not part of the physical universe. The probability of any given such event may be very small, but it is often finite (not zero). For very complex events, the probabilities are so small that they probably won’t happen. Very much less complex events happen ubiquitously throughout the universe. Events of intermediate complexity are rare, but likely to happen from time to time. To put it in slightly different language: Miracles are not only possible, they are ubiquitous. (page 240)
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