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*This post will contain minor spoilers. I mean, you already know he converts, but still…*
I came across The Case For Christ, and automatically assumed it was a documentary proving the existence of Jesus. Of course I jumped right onto that. Had I stopped to read the description or look up the Wikipedia, I would have seen it was not a documentary, but was, in fact, a biopic on Lee Strobel, a Christian author I’d heard of before, but I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never read.
This film really surprised me. Usually when there is a nonbeliever in a Christian film who converts, it never feels realistic. As was the case in WWJD 2: The Woodcarver, when the kids father randomly goes from angry and bitter to loving and saved between scenes. I’m guessing because The Case For Christ was based on real events, they made his conversion more realistic. He had all the evidence in front of him, yet he still was trying to ridicule it. Even half an hour before the end of the film, he was talking to an expert in a particular field and telling him that the other experts he’d talked to were obviously crazy because their answers weren’t what he was looking for.
When he does eventually believe, it’s in the last five minutes of the film, and when he has all the evidence in from of him on his evidence board and he can see that all of the dots connect perfectly. To be honest, that’s pat of the reason I loved this movie so much. As you can tell by my Archeobiblical series, I am obsessed with this topic, which is why I was so excited to see it (even though I mistakenly thought it was a documentary).
The acting was also worth noting. Lee Strobel was portrayed by Mike Vogel, who was in such well-known films as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Poseidon, Cloverfield, and The Help, as well as playing Deputy Shelby in the first season on Bates Motel. So you know he’s got some talent. It’s nice seeing bigger names in Christian films these days. He scenes of him mocking and tormenting his wife, Leslie Strobel, portrayed by Erika Christensen (Leave It to Beaver [1997], Flightplan, How Sweet It Is, Touched by an Angel) are really uncomfortable to watch, and I think that was the point. It makes him realizing what he has done and his apology at the end that much more meaningful, as well as her casually accepting of his apology and forgiving him.