Plot Summary
After her mother died tragically, Pamela’s father threw himself into obsessing over how he was going to raise her. Though they prayed together every night, Pamela’s father micromanaged nearly every aspect of her life and kept her in a fundamentalist bubble. He determined that God’s will for her life was and wouldn’t let her date anyone until he hand-picks the first guy who comes to work for his archaic film ministry for her to hang out with. After being brainwashed all her life, Pamela goes along with it, even though this relationship has no substance, because she too must be the guardian of the fundamentalist-patriarchal flame.
Production Quality (0 points)
If you’re going to make a movie about patriarchal propaganda, the least you can do is make the production good. But no, Pamela’s Prayer sports a medieval production quality reminiscent of Bob Jones University’s Unusual Films (that’s not the only reason this movie is similar to those). It’s very cheap overall, including grainy video and audio quality, very pedestrian camera work, and an extremely clanky soundtrack that sounds like it was recorded in some tiny Bible Belt church (no offense). The sets and locations are severely limited (just like the minds of the writers), and there is absolutely no editing as the condensed life of an unsuspecting girl raised in a cult-like atmosphere is portrayed in just under sixty minutes. But that’s not all that’s wrong with this disaster.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)
Pamela’s Prayer is not a fitting enough title, since this story is entirely centered around normalizing a creepy ideology of patriarchy that seeks to control every aspect of a girl’s life. Using completely empty and one-dimensional characters, including extremely perfect white Christians and very bad ‘worldly’ Christians (like Timothy Chey’s carnal Christians), the patriarchal worldview is shamelessly shoved down your throat. If you want people to convert to your cause, at least try to depict real people, not cardboard cutouts the spew talking points. also, try to actually write a realistic story that is accessible to most people, not some alternate universe portrayal of life. Nevertheless, this film is very legalistic propaganda that aggressively pushes an agenda and has no place in Christian entertainment. Hence, negative points are warranted.
Acting Quality (0 points)
Once again, the Christiano team shows us how to distribute propaganda in the worst fashion possible. Choosing the most extremely white and awkwardly stiff cast possible, they fed the cast members lines and made sure they looked like good little white Christians, and that was about it. Line delivery and emotional delivery are very wooden and robotic, but this was probably mission accomplished for the Christianos. Yet people wonder why people cringe at the thought of Christian films.
Conclusion
After watching a movie like this, one can only conclude that the people who push this sort of legalism on others also believe that those who are not perfect little white Christians cannot be redeemed or restored. The type of parenting that is portrayed in this film as good is exactly the reason why young people ‘fall away from Christianity’ or ‘lose their faith’. God didn’t tell Christian parents to keep their children in little fundamentalist bubbles all their lives or to micromanage every aspect of them, but to create a loving environment where the children learn Who God is (based on actions more than words) and how they can follow Him. Of course children need to be protected from harm and wrongdoing, but raising them in a cult-like atmosphere is equally detrimental. We need Christian families that actually care about each other, not dictate lists of specific rules to follow that are geared toward patriarchy and are designed to create little ‘perfect’ robots. If there’s one reason why a lot of people dislike Christianity, this movie embodies every aspect of it.
Final Rating: -1 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 