Fridae

This is a boring rags-to-riches biopic of Neale B Walsh, the bestselling writer of the Conversations with God book series. After a car accident, Neale (played by Henry Czerny) is left with a broken neck and no job. Living in a tent and begging for food, he feels angry and frustrated until he hears the voice of God encouraging him to start a "conversation" with Him. Neale begins to write down these "conversations" on notepads. These were eventually published in book form, making him one of the most successful writers of the religion/spirituality genre to date.

Though I admit the book series is very good (it almost made an agnostic like me accept the existence of God), the film is hopelessly riddled with flat dialogue and cliched characters. For a movie that purportedly deals with the weighty topic of God and religion, the film is surprisingly shallow and unconvincing. God, for one, speaks like a guest psychiatrist on Oprah, saying things like: "To restrict yourself would be to deny the reality of who you really are" and "You are your own rule-maker." Neale himself isn't all that interesting a character.

A maudlin melodrama like this would have been perfect for the Hallmark TV channel (home of similar fare like Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven), but it's just too bland for the big screen