While many were unsure if a song could really have enough depth to be expanded into a movie, the blockbuster budgeted at only $7 million far exceeded expectations.
“I was skeptical,” a Christian film reviewer from Plugged In admitted. “I was skeptical that a movie based on a song could work—no matter how great that song was. But I’ll admit it: I was wrong. There’s more to I Can Only Imagine than I had been able to imagine.”
“Poetic license aside, so much of Millard’s story is simultaneously relatable and optimistic that the movie works for the same reason the song does,” wrote Variety’s Peter Debruge. “It lightens the burden of the pain people are shouldering today and gives them something to look forward to.”
Perhaps the idea that a 4-minute song could be expanded into a story spanning two hours of film-time isn’t so surprising, given the lifetime of experiences that enriched its meaning.
As actress Nicole DuPort tells Bart’s character in the movie: “You didn’t write this song in 10 minutes. It took a lifetime.”
Check out the I Can Only Imagine trailer below, and be sure to check it out in theaters now!
