The Shack

The kidnap and presumed murder of his young daughter leaves a troubled father struggling with his faith in this speculative drama based on William P Young's Christian-themed bestseller. Middle American everyman Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington) is riven with grief and anger, until he receives an enigmatic invitation to visit the remote shack where the girl's bloody clothes were previously discovered. There he encounters a magical refuge, presided over by a version of the Holy Trinity - a black woman named Papa (Octavia Spencer), a carpenter named Jesus and an ethereal Asian woman representing the Holy Spirit. Their compassion and counselling helps Mack to work through his issues, notably the problem of squaring a loving deity with all the world's daily horrors, as the story seeks to renew the Christian message for a modern audience. Good intentions abound, but so does an abundance of rather superficial chat, which slows the movie to a plod, while the casting of multi-ethnic performers as salve to the white protagonist's soul proves unwittingly patronising. It's a film that asks the right questions, but the answers aren't really dramatically persuasive.