This film was made by well-intentioned and decent people, who wanted to tell a heartwarming story based on real events. Unfortunately, the movie was overwhelmed by sentimentality without offering a logic to the events it sought to portray.
Debbie is the controlling figure as "a girl with a heart so big that Texas can't hold it." She forgives her husband Ron for an affair that nearly destroys their marriage. Years later, when she is dying of cancer, the saintly Debbie says that the adultery was a good thing.
The constant spinning of real life calamity into the theme of "God works in mysterious ways" is the heart and soul of this film. But the film fails to acknowledge that there were some genuinely cruel characters being depicted. One malicious woman tips off Debbie to Ron's affair. A similarly callous wife of the doctor is the first to inform Debbie that she is "terminal" with her cancer. A racist politely asks Ron to stop bringing "the Negro" to the swanky club. And the Scrooge-like father of Ron is the most callow of all...until his unexpected, Scrooge-like reformation at the end.
The most interesting character was Denver, the homeless man filled with secrets of the heart, whose potential is recognized by Debbie while working in a "mission" serving hot meals to the homeless. But whereas we clearly follow the transformation of Denver into a wise and articulate self-sufficient individual and, by his speech, an accomplished poet, he curiously remained homeless, living in the bushes through the entire action of the film. It was not until the closing credits that we learn how Denver assisted Ron Hall with the book that became a spiritual bestseller, then accompanied him on the lecture circuit.
One especially human trait that is left unexamined in this motion picture was the human emotion of guilt. Ron clearly is driven to help out at the mission by the guilt of adultery and for selling Debbie's anniversary gift of the Mary Cassatt painting, then replacing it with a copy. Debbie is motivated by the guilt of her gaudy, opulent, shallow lifestyle to work at the mission and "dream" of a new man entering her life with obvious sexual innuendo. Denver is guilt-ridden for having committed murder while imprisoned at Angola. And the guilt finally catches up to the mean-spirited ex-soda salesman father of Ron.
If the collective guilt experienced by these characters had been examined thoughtfully by the film artists, "Same Kind of Different as Men" might have been elevated from a mundane soap opera into more profound existential film about genuine human realities. If that had happened, it might have been possible for Ron to address his father as "Dad," as opposed to "Earl."
Debbie is the controlling figure as "a girl with a heart so big that Texas can't hold it." She forgives her husband Ron for an affair that nearly destroys their marriage. Years later, when she is dying of cancer, the saintly Debbie says that the adultery was a good thing.
The constant spinning of real life calamity into the theme of "God works in mysterious ways" is the heart and soul of this film. But the film fails to acknowledge that there were some genuinely cruel characters being depicted. One malicious woman tips off Debbie to Ron's affair. A similarly callous wife of the doctor is the first to inform Debbie that she is "terminal" with her cancer. A racist politely asks Ron to stop bringing "the Negro" to the swanky club. And the Scrooge-like father of Ron is the most callow of all...until his unexpected, Scrooge-like reformation at the end.
The most interesting character was Denver, the homeless man filled with secrets of the heart, whose potential is recognized by Debbie while working in a "mission" serving hot meals to the homeless. But whereas we clearly follow the transformation of Denver into a wise and articulate self-sufficient individual and, by his speech, an accomplished poet, he curiously remained homeless, living in the bushes through the entire action of the film. It was not until the closing credits that we learn how Denver assisted Ron Hall with the book that became a spiritual bestseller, then accompanied him on the lecture circuit.
One especially human trait that is left unexamined in this motion picture was the human emotion of guilt. Ron clearly is driven to help out at the mission by the guilt of adultery and for selling Debbie's anniversary gift of the Mary Cassatt painting, then replacing it with a copy. Debbie is motivated by the guilt of her gaudy, opulent, shallow lifestyle to work at the mission and "dream" of a new man entering her life with obvious sexual innuendo. Denver is guilt-ridden for having committed murder while imprisoned at Angola. And the guilt finally catches up to the mean-spirited ex-soda salesman father of Ron.
If the collective guilt experienced by these characters had been examined thoughtfully by the film artists, "Same Kind of Different as Men" might have been elevated from a mundane soap opera into more profound existential film about genuine human realities. If that had happened, it might have been possible for Ron to address his father as "Dad," as opposed to "Earl."