The Ultimate Gift

The Ultimate Gift...one of the latest movies in the Fox Faith line...left me asking the question, "Faith in what?" Yourself? Mankind's ability to be and do good? Hard work?

The basic premise of the story is a billionaire's creative method of distributing his inheritance to his self-centered, money-grubbing relatives. The billionaire gives each of his children a portion of his estate, but not nearly what they were hoping for. To his wayward, stereotypically rebellious grandson, he leaves "the ultimate gift." The grandson doesn't know what this gift is, but he has to follow his instructions to the satisfaction of his grandfather's lawyer or he doesn't get the gift.

Aside from being a poorly written screenplay and a poorly directed movie (shallow characters including the little girl with leukemia, the wayward grandson, the love interest--who has absolutely no life, the former obviously gold-digger girlfriend; awful dialogue from the said shallow characters; a choppy plot line...), the purpose of the movie was completely unmet. The purpose of a cheesy-clean movie (maybe this should be a new genre) should be to instill truth into its viewers, but viewers of this movie have more lies to combat than viewers of the more controversial Harry Potter or Golden Compass movies.

Lie #1: People find satisfaction and happiness in being good people.

Lie#2: Saying and believing cheesy, ear-tickling phrases about God is comforting and enough to answer the hard questions about real life.

Lie #3: You can be a good person at heart while there is no evidence of that in your life. (There is no evidence of the billionaire's own generosity or selflessness.)

Lie #4: If you work hard enough, you can become a good person and you'll be rewarded and applauded by others for being a good person.

As you can see, my biggest concern with this movie is the idea that working hard to be a good person is the ultimate goal in life and that achieving that goal will bring satisfaction. I don't disagree that being generous, working hard, sympathizing with others, and looking outside of your own wants/needs are important. I hope these characteristics describe me someday. But I don't think I'll make it to the point where my life is defined by these characteristics by my own effort and hard work. My ability to have hope in the future, care about other people, give selflessly, deny my own rights, and even care about being "good" comes from depending on the grace of God through the true ultimate gift...the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. As I look to emulate Him, believe in Him, trust in Him, I believe these other "good" things will come as well.