Movie #5: I Can Only Imagine

I had long known the MercyMe song, I Can Only Imagine, but I didn't know the story behind it. This movie tells the story.

It opens with a young boy in the 80s, Bart. He loves music and constantly carries a walkman. He goes to bed to the sound of his parents fighting and screaming, in the morning his mom has bruises around her next. His dad is an angry man. He beats Bart too. Bart's dad is played by Dennis Quaid.

His mom drops him off at camp. There he sees classmates of his and starts journaling. He sees his crush, Shannon and learns she likes him too. He returns home to a moving van. His dad tells that his mom has left them. Bart is devastated. What mom leaves her kid?!

Anyway, Bart grows up trying to avoid his dad. His dad was a football player, so Bart plays football. His dad makes a remark about how many players it took to tackle him, since it just took just one to take down Bart. So, Bart tries harder, which results in two broken feet and the end of his football career. His dad is disappointed again.

So, Bart must find a new elective mid-semester. The only thing that's open is glee club, but he doesn't sing. So, Bart is in charge of sound until the teacher accidentally hears him sing and casts him as Curly in the musical, Oklahoma. He's mortified, but she gives him no way out. He rocks the part to massive applause. While at a diner, his dad sees an ad for Oklahoma with Bart's name in it as the lead. His dad then collapses and is taken the hospital. He's seriously sick. He meets Bart's girlfriend, Shannon and tells him that she's a keeper.

Bart graduates, breaks, up with Shannon, and starts doing sound for a band. Then he starts singing with a band. While on the road, he randomly calls Shannon and leaves her messages.

Meanwhile, Bart recruits a manager to start promoting the band. The new manager gets recording labels to come hear them in Nashville. Despite all the writing and work the band has done, they're told that they aren't good enough. Well, this devastates Bart and he loses it. He takes a break from the band to "go home." The band says he's family and they'll wait for him.

Bart gets home and tries to avoid his dad, but his dad has made breakfast. His dad, Arthur talks about how he wants them to do, like re-do the Jeep. It brings up all of Bart's feelings from growing up. His dad acts like nothing ever happened. Bart storms off and finds a paper in his dad's truck that says he has pancreatic cancer. Then Bart hears his dad beating the Jeep up with a baseball bat. He falls over and tells Bart to hit him, but he doesn't.

Arthur says he's changed and listens to sermons on the radio. Bart takes him to church. He remembers and regrets the abuse. Bart starts to teach his dad more about God. The end is coming near for him. Bart gets the Jeep going and they go for a ride. Arthur is a changed man and the anger is off of his face for the first time in a long time. He's now filled with peace. He encourages Bart to follow his music dream. Bart's dad sets it up so that when he dies, he'll get a monthly check to live off of. Bart is with his dad as he passes away. He sings Amazing Grace at the funeral and it's beautiful.

The band picks Bart up and they're playing again. He writes a song about his dad in heaven. His manager records it and sends it to Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. Amy's crew thinks it's the song to bring her career back. Bart calls Shannon and leaves a message that he's written a song that's going to be big. At an event, Amy is going to debut the song. Bart is in attendance. She decides she can't take Bart's song, so Amy invites him to the stage to sing it. He does and as they say, the rest is history. MercyMe becomes famous, the song goes triple platinum, and Shannon and Bart get married.

What a terrific story of redemption and love. I laughed and I cried. I can only imagine what it will be like to be in Heaven, free of the pain of this body, free from sin, and forever with God.