I Can Only Imagine (2018)

★ 7.5 1h 50m 494 votes IMDb

Drama Music

Growing up in Greenville, Texas, Bart Millard suffers physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father, Arthur. When Arthur becomes terminally ill, he finds redemption by embracing his faith and rediscovering his love for his son. Years later, Bart's troubled childhood and mended relationship with his dad inspires him to write the hit song "I Can Only Imagine" as singer of the Christian band MercyMe.

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Cast

J. Michael Finley as Bart Millard Age 37 · Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA John Michael Finley was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas and raised in Lebanon, Missouri. He is the second of five children born to Wayne and Betsy Finley. He began singing and acting in Junior High.

Madeline Carroll as Shannon Age 30 · Los Angeles, California, USA Madeline Carroll (born March 18, 1996) is an American actress and she is best known for playing Julianna "Juli" Baker in her feature film Flipped. Description above from the Wikipedia article Madelin...

Dennis Quaid as Arthur Age 72 · Houston, Texas, USA Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after appearing in several successful films, including as Mike Brody in Jaws 3-D (1983), Alex Gardner i...

Trace Adkins as Brickell Age 64 · Springhill, Louisiana, USA Tracy Darrell "Trace" Adkins (born January 13, 1962) is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1996 with the album Dreamin' Out Loud, released on Capitol Records Nashville. Since then,...

Cloris Leachman as Memaw Died 2021 · Des Moines, Iowa, USA Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 26, 2021) was an American actress and comedian, whose career spanned over seven decades. She won various accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from...

Director Jon Erwin

Cast J. Michael Finley, Madeline Carroll, Dennis Quaid, Trace Adkins, Cloris Leachman, Jason Burkey, Mark Furze, Randy McDowell, Cole Marcus, Alexander Dominguez

There-Can-Be-Only-One 9/10 Mar 18, 2018

*Disclaimer: This isn't any sort of "official" review. This is just one ordinary movie-goer's opinion...

Lovely movie. 😊

I honestly wasn't expecting much, but I wanted to support MercyMe, and I always like to throw my support whenever a movie theater plays a good, clean movie like this one.

I was actually quite amazed by the production. It had the look of a big budget film (I have no idea how much the budget was), and was lacking the cheese element prevalent in so many Christian movies. It was remarkably well cast, and I was particularly impressed by both guys who played Bart - the 11 year old Bart (Brody Rose), and the teenage/20something Bart (J Michael Finley). I also LOVED Trace Adkins as Brickell.

I took my non-believer friend to it, because he likes MercyMe, and has enjoyed Bart's testimonies whenever I've taken him to a concert, and he liked the movie as well. He even teared up, and he is NOT an emotional guy! I cried too, but I'm an emotional girl! 😉

I definitely recommend it. I'm not a person who enjoys going to the movie theater, and usually will only go in special circumstances. I think mainstream America playing a Christian movie in the theater is a special circumstance, and if you want to see more of this happening, I hope you'll go support it.

Simon Foster Apr 19, 2018

"Though it will never be championed as an insightful work of either religious art or patriarchal psychology, I Can Only Imagine does manage to be a good film about a great song..."

Read the full review here: http://screen-space.squarespace.com/reviews/2018/3/23/i-can-only-imagine.html

Wuchak 6/10 Feb 18, 2019

***The story behind the popular Christian band***

Released in 2018, “I Can Only Imagine” is a biopic of Bart Millard (J. Michael Finley) of MercyMe, spanning his childhood, the abuse of his father (Dennis Quaid), meeting his true love (Madeline Carroll), starting the band, low-rent touring, acquiring a manager (Trace Adkins) and eventual success with the band’s titular hit.

While this semi-modest inspirational flick is nowhere near as good as “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980) or even “La Bamba” (1987), it’s almost on par with the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” (2005), although it cost five times LESS and lacks the polish. Finley is an otherwise unknown actor, but he makes for a fine protagonist. And Carroll is winsome and curvy; unfortunately, her part is small.

It’s too by-the-numbers, but I could relate to the father/son issues and the story builds to an inspiring and emotional performance of their hit song.

The film runs 1 hour, 50 minutes and was shot entirely in Oklahoma.

GRADE: B-/C+