Machine Gun Preacher - 2 1/2 smiles

“Machine Gun Preacher” tells an interesting ‘based on a true story’ of Sam Childers (an effective Gerard Butler). Too bad the script is so weak with lots of underdeveloped subplots and missing chunks of time. In addition, when the final credits roll, I was waiting for a clear directive to help support Childer’s efforts by donating money. I felt manipulated to such a degree that I wonder how much of Sam’s heroics are true. The action sequences are suspenseful and engaging, but they don’t mesh with the dramatic parts. Childer’s relationship with his daughter (Madeline Carroll) isn’t as affecting as it should be because we only get glimpses. And his friendship with Donnie (Michael Shannon) has little impact on the narrative other than to contrast his weak character with Childer’s stronger and more determined one. And although the character development of Childers is better than most action-type movies, some of his actions are puzzling. Nonetheless, Butler’s performance is the best thing about this movie. He captures the essence of a man who is quick to anger and quick to act, but we also see a darker part of his soul, the parts he keeps hidden, maybe even from God.

“Machine Gun Preacher” opens in the late 1990s with Childers, a Hell’s Angels biker, leaving prison. When he gets home, Childers discovers his wife, Lynn (Michelle Monaghan) has quit her lucrative job as a stripper because she has found God. After meaningless sessions with drugs and a close call with a homicidal hitchhiker who nearly kills him and his best buddy, Donnie (Shannon), Sam heeds the Lord’s call. In the blink of an eye, he leaves his drinking and drugs behind, opens his own construction company, becomes an active evangelist and builds a church for hard-core sinners in his neighborhood. After hearing a guest speaker talk about the needs of the people in Africa, Childers goes to Sudan to help with a construction project. After befriending Deng (Souleymane Sy Savane), a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, Childers believes that God wants him to build an orphanage in the war torn country and go on armed rescue missions of kidnapped children. He becomes so focused on his mission in Africa that he ignores the problems developing at home. Director Marc Forster may have started with a real story, but by the time it’s over, you wonder how much is true. 10/2/11