What would you say to God if you could ask Him anything? An Interview With God explores this question as war journalist Paul Asher (played by Brenton Thwaites) sits down over three days with a man who claims to be God (David Strathairn). Asher is at a low point in his life. His wife had an affair and left him and he is dealing with trauma from reporting in Afghanistan. His faith in God is being sorely tested.

Despite this creative and powerful premise, it’s not a very good movie. The movie’s failure to draw the viewer into the protagonists’ struggle contrasts sharply with movies such as Indivisible and Hacksaw Ridge, where the struggle seems real. Most of An Interview With God is simply flat and stale.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead.

God Almost Saves The Day

Strathairn plays the God Christians might expect. He loves us, He wants what’s best for us, but He’s also not going to give us all of the answers. As the viewing audience will intimately understand, Asher finds himself frustrated and confused when talking with God — even though they are face-to-face!

One of the movie’s most emotional scenes is when God tells Asher he is “just about out of time.” Asher gets angry at being told he will die soon, but he says no when God asks if he would like to know the exact time and date. When asked later why he told Asher about his pending death, God says that he thought a journalist would appreciate deadlines.

God’s best lesson to Asher comes just before God departs. He says, “I hear it all” when it comes to prayers of suffering and pain. He tells Asher people should “look to each other, and that’s where I’ll be.” He explains: “Sometimes, the miracle is you.”

God is dryly witty. Asher asks if atheists can be moral people. God says yes, but warns that atheists are like homes without foundations. He gives God-like answers to questions about his age and existing outside of time, and how Asher not laughing at a bad joke proves free will. He also asks Asher to discuss salvation from the perspective of market research and product development — one of the most “I hadn’t thought of it that way” moments in the film.

The theological discussions include important and common topics like suffering and salvation. God shoots down the idea of faith without works quickly and decisively.

Regretfully, even God isn’t perfect in this film. He often appears uncertain in dealing with Asher, contrary to what would be the nature of an all-knowing being. He allows Asher to deflect from discussion about the latter’s marital and war difficulties. That leaves the details of both largely unexplained, untouched, and thus difficult to internalize as a viewer.

A Few Good Moments Can’t Overcome The Rest

Several unclear moments in the film are cleverly addressed later on. The most important is when Asher speaks with a woman who asks if his wife has left. The impression is that he and the woman are having an affair. Later, it is revealed that the woman is his sister-in-law, with whom Asher’s wife is staying. It is also through the sister-in-law that viewers discover that Sarah cheated on Asher, not the other way around.

Even these scenes don’t draw the viewer into Asher’s world, however. The opening scene depicting him on a plane is later revealed to be the same plane on which flag-draped coffins are being transported. What should be a heart-wrenching moment comes across as just another flat scene.

Simply put, An Interview With God is awkward and slow-moving from beginning to end. Worse, like the coffin clip, many scenes which are clearly designed to connect with viewers’ emotions fail to do so. For example, several of Asher’s responses to his interviews with God are far more frantic than they deserve. Poor acting by Asher’s wife leaves her emotions largely unreadable — even when she says she loves Asher as they begin repairing their marriage. And her sister’s attempts to help seem more canned than scripted.

Even one of the best sub-plots is little-explored. Asher is helping a veteran with PTSD receive treatment. The viewer is never given the ability to connect with the veteran’s difficulties or why Asher is so intent on investing with this veteran despite how it affects his marriage. This contrasts sharply with Indivisible, where protagonist Darren Turner and his wife are believably at odds because Turner puts service members ahead of his family.

Plot holes also abound. Asher zeroes in on a white bike at least twice for no discernible reason. God tells Asher that they’ll “come back to” discussing God’s opinion that Asher has “a misunderstanding about the nature of faith,” but they never do. The film doesn’t address Asher’s discovery that the face of God is that of a man who died 12 years earlier, and it leaves the random locations for the three interviews mostly unexplained.

What Did He Learn?

At the end of the movie, Asher says that he was praying to God, but not listening. This lesson comes out of left field. So does his sudden appreciation for life after his third interview with God.

Dramatically and inexplicably, Asher forgives his wife’s transgressions, steps away from suicide, and is no longer troubled by his war experience — even though these deeply spiritual and psychological challenges are little-addressed. The viewer is left to assume that he will likewise magically transform himself from the self-absorbed man whose drive for work and theology drove his wife away to a selfless husband.

But even if this miracle takes place, the viewer has no idea how it will happen. It doesn’t ask the viewer to consider what we would do if we met God face-to-face here on Earth. It doesn’t challenge us to care more for our spouses, or to consider how difficult war is for those in it. Even contrary to its marketing materials, An Interview With God doesn’t provide a template for how we the viewers should converse with God.

We are left with just another struggling movie that had great promise but fell flatter than a Tom Brady football.