What would happen if you were invited to dinner with Jesus? That's the question a recent movie asks. Based on a novel by David Gregory (not the David Gregory who called Imus drunk), The Perfect Stranger features Pamela Brumley as Nikki, a grouchy lawyer who doesn't get along with her family, has lost her connection to God, and wears the kind of makeup usually reserved for whores and pastor's wives.
Pamela gets an invitation to dinner at a fancy restaurant. Thinking it's a setup by her husband, she arrives only to find that her dinner date is none other than a man claiming to be Jesus Christ. And like all accurate portrayals of Jesus Christ, this one is played by a blond Caucasian.
For the next hour, Nikki and "The Stranger" sit at the table eating, drinking wine, and conversing about God, Christ, and how they relate to our real lives. I don't mean that the dinner lasts for an hour. I mean that the scene lasts for an hour. It's like the Battle of Helm's Deep without all the fighting, killing, and homo-erotic banter between Legolas and Gimli. Although both movies do end with a guy standing in a shining white robe.
The Perfect Stranger is typical Christian fare... in other words, poorly written, acted, and directed. This film has better than average (relatively speaking) production values, and a mildly intriguing plot (for the first fifteen minutes or so.) It's that hour long dinner that sends the movie into a preachy, boring tailspin from which it can't recover. If you're already a Christian, perhaps listening to Jesus talk for an hour makes for an informative, if not entertaining, experience. But until Christian filmmakers start insisting on acting, directing, and production values that are at least on par with late night Cinemax, they're going to have a hard time convincing any casual viewers to pay attention.