While Christian publishing has profited greatly from the trend of major movie studios looking to capitalize on the Christian marketplace, the average evangelical movie buff can’t say the same. Instead, we are treated to low-budget, unchallenging fare such as Fox Faith’s recent DVD release “Saving Sarah Cain.” It’s a harmless, feel-good story of a career woman whose life takes an unexpected turn. The movie is earnest without a doubt, and has a few bright moments, but it’s spiritually lighter than the foam on your favorite designer coffee.

The entire plot of the story can be summed up this way: Sarah Cain is an ambitious journalist struggling to resurrect her flagging career when a personal crisis disrupts her life–later, she finds herself with an unusual opportunity to catapult her career. I’d give away the twist, but just in case I don’t convince some readers to take a pass, I won’t. Let’s just say that while the clever twist is interesting for a little while, it eventually just reminds viewers of a more famous, much more interesting movie with the same twist.
Don’t get me wrong,”Sarah Cain” hits all of the right moral high notes, and, in fact, hits them over and over again. So I can certainly recommend this movie to those who like their Christianity with all of the subtlety of a speeding freight train and the insight of a highway billboard. For everyone else, this movie is simply another example of Hollywood continuing to create a Christian cultural ghetto where the message is that Christians will always settle for less.