The Critical Frog: War Room

It may just be me, but I'll never quite understand why false advertising is so big in modern media. What's the point of promising something if you're not going to show it? It only leaves audiences disappointed and directors criticized. In an age where we have the internet to tell us what we need to know before heading to the theater, the only reason for false marketing seems to be to trick people who are unfamiliar with the concept of looking before leaping. If we wanted to see a deep political film about personal decision and family over personal power, we would go check the web to see if the film we were planning to view delivers what it promises. Then we would go see The Hulk, because we wouldn't feel up to a deep, philosophical exploration after all that web-searching which would inevitably spoil the film for you. This brings me to the amount of war in the film titled War Room- or, more specifically, it's lack of it. Expecting this film to be about the power of prayer is like walking into the latest showing of Star Wars and expecting a long discussion on galaxy trade precautions and ethics (assuming the film in question isn't The Phantom Menace).

As it turns out, the 'War Room' mentioned in the title has nothing to do with war- and for that matter, is barely even a room. It turns out that the title location is actually a closet used for praying by our main character- a wife constantly tormented by her husband's emotional abuse and cheating habits, as her only escape. With the help of her friend's family, she braves the relationship while finding solace in god. What is curious about this is not why she chooses to stay in this relationship, or why she can't get a bigger room to pray in (or at least a larger closet), but what exactly War has to do with it. And, to be honest, I don't know. If I wanted to see abusive relationships, I wouldn't dash towards something called 'War Room'. As much as you all know I hate artspolitation (people coming up with 'artistic' excuses for shows or films being bad), I have to give those credit for actually showing what they implied on the poster.

For a film attempting to portray judgement as a negative thing, it certainly does it's share of playing holier-than-thou. There's quite a lot about prayer being the ultimate answer above all else (even typical law and reason), and how the general public should respond to situations. Being born-again will never truly be a perfect concept, and it certainly doesn't help that the so-called christian reformed man continues his emotional abuse after his 'reformation', Toss in the addition of his corrupt business practices and you've got quite a religious mess on your hands. 

Overall Rating: 3/10

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The problem with prayer films like this isn't the prayer itself- religion can be a powerful tool in film (Hunchback of Notre Dame), but without much else to offer, you're stuck in the mud without a genuine plot and idea behind your film (even if you took out the church aspect of Hunchback and made it simply a clocktower and a mayor instead of a corrupt Minister, it'd still hold up, though admittedly not as much). Take away the prayer here and you have literally no reason for this relationship to continue. 

I've picked on religion quite a bit lately, but give bad church films some credit- there's something you can laugh about in those. Without the intensity and power that good religion in film can provide, and absent of the unintentional comedy in bad religious film, there's nothing holding this up- and as such, nothing to see it for.