By REY FLORES
In today’s culture that constantly attacks traditional marriage, life, and family, we all face terrific contrary pressures as we try to stay on the path of the straight and narrow. Temptations abound and the wickedness and snares of the Devil are constantly trying to get us to sin and put our eternal souls at risk.
Sometimes when we do choose to sin, we leave behind the wreckage of our sins, having hurt some of the people we purport to love the most, including God. This film is exactly about that.
The Song is one of the most enjoyable films I have watched in a long time. It has style, great acting, and a terrific soundtrack that is a huge part of the story because it is about a musician and his journey in life.
Actor Alan Powell puts in a stellar performance as the young, rugged, and handsome Jed King, son of a hell-raising country legend who passed down his sins to his son the same way other fathers pass down an old toolbox or even a hammer.
At the start of the movie, we get to see a little of Jed’s father, the infamous David King, and some of his wild ways that left behind a train wreck for his son to try and figure his way out of. The movie then segues into the young, bright-eyed country boy with the good looks, slinging his guitar as he makes his way into a gig at a winery where he is playing a show, and walking into a huge new chapter in his life.
Jed makes nice with the winery owner’s daughter, the pretty young Rose Jordan, played by actress Ali Faulkner who has the all-American, girl-next-door charm that has swept many a red-blooded American man off his cowboy boots.
The love story progresses as Jed and his new bride Rose start a fairy tale-like life complete with a baby and a handsome husband serenading his pretty wife at sunrise. This is the calm before the storm.
It turns out that Jed writes such a beautiful song for his wife that it thrusts him into the limelight and a world of fame, fortune, recording contracts, and concert tours. This inevitably puts a wedge between the couple who seemed so in love at first, but are now confronted with Jed’s new-found fame and all the trappings that go along with that indulgent and excessive lifestyle.
The label “home wrecker” is often placed on a third party who disrupts a marriage by romantically pursuing one half of the married couple. While that person certainly is no angel, it is the married person who is truly the home wrecker, because the married person is the one who should remain loyal to his or her spouse.
Without giving too much of the plot away here, Jed’s long days on the road cause a disruption in his intimacy with his wife the rare times he is home. To fill the void that Jed feels his wife has unfairly left him with, he finds comfort in an equally talented fellow entertainer with whom he is touring.
Actress Caitlin Nicol-Thomas plays our villainess Shelby Bale, who entices the lonesome, road-weary Jed with come-hither glances, much needed attention, and a cornucopia of booze and pills.
The remainder of the movie takes us down the painful journey of consequences Jed now faces because of his indiscriminate behavior and unfaithfulness to his wife and to God.
The film’s adult subject makes it more of a movie for grown-ups, so I wouldn’t let children watch it. The complexities and downfalls of infidelity are an ugly reality many children see in their own lives; no need to subject them to a movie that will probably upset them.
I highly recommend The Song for its message of the struggles of generational sin, forgiveness, and the pursuit for redemption. The Song is a great film, especially for married men like myself, to really appreciate how blessed we are with our wives.
Temptations come and go and can destroy our lives and souls, but a wife’s love and the unconditional love of our children is God’s way of telling us just how much He loves us.
The Song opens in theaters nationwide on September 26, 2014. Watch the trailer at: www.TheSongMovie.com.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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