Review: Wildflower

Wildflower
Genre: Suspense, Faith
Release date: April 5, 2016

Chloe Morey seems to be a typical college student. At school on a scholarship, she experiences a little more stress and pressure than her peers, but it isn’t anything more than a lot of other college kids. Except that there’s far more under the surface than anyone realizes.

Chloe is experiencing blackouts. When she comes out of them, she is usually in some sort of distress and often, surrounded by sketches, paintings or artwork that all have the same theme. Someone close to her is in danger and she’s pretty sure it’s her friend, Rebecca. Unfortunately, no one believes Chloe when she tells them what she thinks. Everyone just assumes she’s mentally unstable. Until she meets Josh.
Carrying his own heavy burdens, Josh isn’t exactly a shining example of someone who is emotionally stable. Still reeling from the death of his girlfriend, he’s shut down (and out) nearly everything in his life. Yet when his path crosses that of Chloe’s, something about her haunts him and he just can’t quite let go of the idea that he needs to help her.

Wildflower is a suspenseful film with faith based values that can be a refreshing change of pace for Christian audiences. It’s not overly preachy and the plotline and twists are engaging and unique. The filmmaking and acting were well above the average and though the pacing bogged down in portions, it did keep moving along generally well.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this film was the idea that not all Christians are perfect. So many people outside the faith find us all judgmental and assume that we all believe we’re perfect. Anyone who spends a decent amount of time in the church can tell you that no one is perfect. We’re all sinners and even living our faith every day, we still mess up. For the most part, we’re broken. This film covers broken really well. It explores the dynamics of how to get past the broken pieces and there are some really powerful moments in here that explain scars and brokenness. It’s powerful stuff.

As I mentioned above, there are some moments where the pacing bogs down and a few of the twists and turns in the plot bothered me. They didn’t seem to connect the dots well and once or twice, there were some unrealistic scenes that just didn’t make sense at all.

However, overall, it was a good watch. If you enjoy suspense or mysteries, it’s enough to keep you on the edge of your seat for a while and guessing about where things could be headed.  Wildflower is an engaging film with a unique plot and it’s a solid choice for a movie night.

Rating: PG-13