War Room

War Room (spoilers alert)

A Review by John Haynes

Today I went to see the movie War Room. I hadn’t really heard much about it. I did see online that it was about prayer. Boy, is it about prayer.

It mostly deals with a middle class family. They happen to be black (more on that later), but their race isn’t the issue. It’s the fact that like so many couples, they can’t get along. They fight constantly. Elizabeth (Priscilla C. Shirer) and Tony (T.C. Stallings) get along, but just barely. At the beginning of the movie, Elizabeth wants to give some money to her sister. Tony wants no part of it. She married a bum, he maintains. He won’t let her give any of “his” money to her sister, and that’s that.

Elizabeth is a real estate agent, and she goes to the home of an elderly woman, Clara (Karen Abercrombie), whose army husband died of a heart attack many years ago. She’s been all alone for many years (although we find later that she’s far from alone) and is planning to move in with her only son. As Clara and Elizabeth talk about the house, Clara is more interested in Elizabeth’s spiritual life than about selling her house. This makes Elizabeth a bit uncomfortable, but she lets her continue because she has respect for this elderly woman. Clara makes it clear that Elizabeth doesn’t have to live like this. God can make things different. But you have to surrender your life to him. That gives Elizabeth much to think about.

As time goes on, Elizabeth continues to visit Clara, and not just for real estate matters. She is genuinely intrigued by this woman and her faith in God. She’s never seen anything like it before. Clara is almost solely focused on prayer. She has a prayer closet in her home that is literally a closet that is empty save for some things taped to the walls. They are prayers she’s put there to remind her of her mission. This room is what Clara calls her War Room. It is all about spiritual warfare. Elizabeth decides to do the same thing in her home. It takes some time, but she finally gets it all arranged the way it should be. And she also begins to tape prayers to the wall. Mostly they are prayers for her husband. But they’re not the prayers you might expect. They are prayers that God would bless him and use him to be the man God wants him to be. They begin to change Elizabeth greatly.

Her daughter Danielle (Alena Pitts) even notices what is happening with her mother. There is a tearful moment before the change takes place where Danielle challenges her mother about how much she really knows about her life. It is sad that she really knows very little about her own daughter.

Tony is a very successful pharmaceutical salesman. Or so it seems. In the midst of what Elizabeth is going through, there is a scene where she talks out loud to Satan and tells him that he has no place in her home. Not with her, her daughter, and not with “my man.” She banishes him in the name of Jesus to go away and leave them alone. It is truly a mind-blowing moment to see her do this!

At one point, Tony is out of town on business. He looks up a woman he’d met earlier. They go to dinner. She says she’d like a bottle of wine that’s her favorite. But that restaurant doesn’t have it. It’s at her apartment. So he agrees that they should go there. At the same time back home, Elizabeth is praying earnestly for Tony. She finds out from a friend who is in the city where Tony is that he is having dinner with a woman the friend doesn’t know. I’m sure it’s just a client, Elizabeth assures her. But Elizabeth is anything but sure that’s the case. Anyway, Tony all of a sudden tells his date that he need a minute and goes to the restroom. He comes back not to go with her to her apartment. No explanation; he just doesn’t go.

When Tony gets home, one of his bosses calls him and tells him he needs to see him. It seems that he has been cooking the books. He gets fired. When he goes back home, he’s very upset. Elizabeth doesn’t know why and tries to find out. Finally he tells her that he got fired. He is very surprised that she doesn’t light into him. He can’t understand why. It’s then that he begins to realize the change that has come over his wife.

The really good part is that Elizabeth and Tony take a profound interest in their daughter’s life and school activities. She is very involved in jump rope. I didn’t know schools even did jump rope competition, but this one does. In fact, Tony is part of it. He’s very talented, even doing backflips. I won’t tell you how Danielle’s team places. You’ll have to see the film.

The gospel is all over this movie. You can’t miss it. But even more, the power of prayer is evident. I was surprised and disappointed that it gets only a 4.7 (of 10) rating on IMDb.com. I gave it a 10, and I don’t do that lightly. This is a truly great film.

Another thing that I liked is that this isn’t a movie with big stars. I didn’t even recognize anyone in it. And what’s more, it’s about a black family. It is sad that so many black families really have very little faith. Whites are the same, but most blacks at least go to church. It doesn’t seem to matter much, though, because most blacks voted for Obama. They apparently cannot see the evil in this man.

But I don’t want this to be about politics. I was glad that the family is black because they’re not presented as a black family. They’re just a family. And that’s how it should be. We should treat all people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said.

There was a lot of crying in the movie, and I’m sure there was in the theater I was in. I know I did. God showed me a lot of things in this movie. I have a closet that is very similar to the ones in the movie. I don’t have the luxury of emptying it to make it like theirs, but I can still use it as a War Room. And I plan to.

My warfare is about my job. I’ve posted a good deal about this on Facebook. I have many friends who are very simpatico about what I’ve been going through with my boss. But this isn’t about him. It’s not even about me. It’s about what God wants to do in my life. No matter what he does in my life, whether I keep this job or get another one, I want God to get the victory. I want to glorify him in all I do. I’m grateful that I saw this movie. It shows me what I need to do in this spiritual battle I face.