Yesterday's big event was a shooting challenge - a nerf gun at a white board bullseye. My team got third again. I'm sensing a trend! But, even the big boss got in on it (a regularly active member of the NRA, not pictured here), so we had a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure I sat exactly where Luke Wilson is sitting for an office picnic a couple of years ago. That's right - this one was filmed in the university's neighborhood, although I had no idea about that before I went to see it. It also has shots from La Habra (City Hall, I think, and driving up Lambert towards Beach) and Whittier (Mexican supermarket on Lambert). It was very surreal to be sitting in the theater, thinking the neighborhood looks a lot like La Mirada, and then seeing a couple of houses that I distinctly recognized. It's fun to see how a filmmaker views your neighborhood, especially what they choose to include or exclude from their shots.

The movie itself is about a man named Henry (Luke Wilson) who is told he has a terminal disease. He leaves the city and buys a home in his childhood neighborhood - a newly stuccoed home. The new stucco job doesn't impress him because there's a water stain on his wall; the stucco job then becomes annoying when his devoutly Catholic neighbor sees the image of Christ in the water stain; and the new stucco job becomes the bane of his existence when a lot of "coincidences" seem to be happening in the neighborhood (and his backyard is almost always occupied). Henry is forced to face his belief or disbelief in miracles and God, and come to terms with how his illness plays into how he feels about those topics. Along the way he also befriends his single-mother neighbor Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her daughter.

Now, a movie about a water stain with the image of Christ in it could turn out to be a pretty bad thing. I didn't even know the plot of the movie when I walked into the theater, and was nervous the whole time that the movie would take a wrong turn. There are a couple of awkward moments - the biggest script flaw is the jump between Henry talking vaguely to a clerk at his grocery store to that clerk showing up in his backyard without him asking why or how she's there - but really, the movie is actually effective. Henry's neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) could have been a complete stereotype, and while she does fulfill some of our expectations of a Hispanic busy-body Catholic, she turns out to be a wonderful portrayal unconditional Christian love. No matter how many times Henry lashes out at her, she returns love, and although she's over the top she is actually enjoyable throughout the whole movie. The father from her church (George Lopez, of all people), as well, isn't fanatical. He is understanding and doesn't try to force his or Esperanza's beliefs on Henry. These two are possibly the most positive portrayal of a Christian I've seen in a movie for a while.

The interesting part of this movie is that it seems to represent all sides of the spectrum, from atheism to agnostic to Christian. Except for the Catholics in the movie, no person really professes to be one thing or another, but they're all there, and as Ebert pointed out, they all have beliefs even though they may not be the same ones. Radha Mitchell and Morgan Lily are a radiant little pair, and probably represent agnosticism. One of my favorite moments is when several miracle-like events have occurred in Henry's back yard, and Dawn says to him, "It's getting harder, isn't it?" And when he asks what is harder, she says something to the effect of, "Pretending that these are all just coincidences." She's not sure what it is, but is willing to admit that she thinks there are miracles occurring.

I think that, by the end of the movie, both the believer and non-believer may by a little bit dissatisfied with its conclusion. One may think it promotes belief in God and miracles while the other may think it's too vague and doesn't have the strong closing statement it should. I think I like it the way it is because it just opens up the door for thought, not only in the audience's mind, but in Henry's. And after all, this movie is about Henry and the transformation he goes through, in dealing with his illness, his beliefs, his relationships, and how he feels about his past and who he is now.

I know that this movie probably won't reach everyone in the same way, but from my own background, it worked. With Religious heading out to theaters this fall, I feel attacked just by watching its previews. It was nice to see a movie that was willing to look at a Christian positively and be willing to explore ideas about belief without being patronizing to either side. While I do think that the balance (surprisingly) leans more toward the believing side, I'm glad that it doesn't beat the audience over the head. I think there are certain scenes in this movie that turned out to be ones that will probably stay in my head for a while. I'd say that's a pretty good result for running into the theater just to be there for the sake of doing something on a short Friday!