The Moment After (1999) starring Julie Link, Mike Wilson, David A.R. White, Kevin Downes, Greg Davis directed by Wes Llewellyn Movie Review

The Moment After (1999)   2/52/52/52/52/5


David A.R. White in The Moment After (1999)

A Left Behind Movie

It was three o'clock when FBI agent Adam Riley (David A.R. White) was woken by a knock out the door as his colleague agent Baker (Kevin Downes) says they must report immediately to the office. There they learn that in a twinkling of an eye millions of people have just disappeared with Riley and Backer ordered to investigate despite it seeming to be the rapture mentioned in the Bible. As they go from one person to another to question them as to what happened that day Adam finds his beliefs and feelings coming in to play whilst Baker sees it as just another job. Eventually their investigation brings to their attention a mysterious man who seems to be going from one place to another uniting those left behind.

I am trying to make sense of who "The Moment After" is for; I suppose if you are devoutly religious and only wish your children to watch movies with a Christian message then it would fit the bill. But then if I was a child raised in a church going family I might find "The Moment After" laborious as despite the apocalyptical cover artwork this is a movie which only has one speed, slow. And seems more about not so much scaring the audience but making them contemplate how they will feel if they are not taken in that twinkling of an eye and are left behind on Earth. As such I can't knock "The Moment After" as in this case the movie has some merit despite finding it more laborious than thought provoking which I sense was the intention.

But if what I have said is true then "The Moment After" is only a Christian Movie for Christians and I know that showing this to non Christians will not encourage them to convert or become born again but to vow not to watch another Christian movie. In fairness it is a lot better than some Christian movies I endured especially back in the 80s but this still has a style which doesn't work in a secular world. And that is frustrating because whilst I can understand a need for Christian movies for Christian families this should have aimed more to be a work of evangelism, to open the eyes of those who may have never heard of the rapture.

What this all boils down to is that "The Moment After" is a Christian movie for devout Christian families and there is nothing wrong with that. But as a movie which will work for a wider, secular audience it comes up well short and lacks the evangelistic side which might have given it the energy which it is clearly lacking.


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