An inspirational approach to healing family discord and overcoming racial tensions is offered in the uplifting drama “The Grace Card” (Samuel Goldwyn).
While not especially subtle, director David Evans’ warm-hearted, unobjectionable message movie celebrates the transformative power of Gospel values in a manner sufficiently winning to compensate for some artistic shortcomings.
Haunted by the long-ago death of his toddler son in an auto accident caused by a black drug dealer, Memphis, Tenn., police officer Mac McDonald (Michael Joiner) continues to grapple, more than a decade and a half later, with serious personal and professional issues.
At home, Mac is dysfunctionally disconnected both from his loving wife Sara (Joy Moore) and from the deceased lad’s younger brother Blake (Rob Erikson), now an adrift teen. On the job, his career is handicapped by his brooding manner and borderline-racist outlook.
So Mac is far from pleased to find himself teamed as a patrol partner with African-American colleague Sam Wright (Michael Higgenbottom). All the more so since Sam — a happily married part-time minister in the Church of the Nazarene — is given to expressing his cheerful good humor by softly singing hymns to himself as the two drive around town.
Though repeatedly rebuffed by his crabby new cohort, Sam persists in his determination to convince Mac that the solution to his problems can be found by turning to the Lord. Sam draws spiritual support from his gracious wife Debra (Dawntoya Thomason) and from his sage grandfather George (Louis Gossett Jr.), himself a veteran clergyman.
“The Grace Card” plays its strongest suit by urging that interracial reconciliation, like familial concord, must be based on a foundation of mutual forbearance patterned after God’s forgiving and self-sacrificial love for humanity.
If that Scripture-based lesson is sometimes driven home with a slightly heavy hand, and helped along by the occasional plot contrivance, it is nonetheless one that viewers of faith will welcome. As for the story through which it’s conveyed, although some thematic elements make it unsuitable for the youngest, parents can bring tweens and teens along to the cinema — or send them off to it on their own — without worry.
Content & Ratings
The film contains a drug-use theme and brief action violence with some blood.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents.
The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
John Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
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