Synopsis
After suffering a family tragedy, Mack Phillips spirals into a deep depression causing him to question his innermost beliefs. Facing a crisis of faith, he receives a mysterious letter urging him to an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Despite his doubts, Mack journeys to the shack and encounters an enigmatic trio of strangers led by a woman named Papa. Through this meeting, Mack finds important truths that will transform his understanding of his tragedy and change his life forever.
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Cast
- Sam WorthingtonMack Phillips
- Octavia SpencerPapa / Elouisa
- Tim McGrawWillie
- Aviv AlushJesus
- Sumire MatsubaraSarayu
- Radha MitchellNan Phillips
- Graham GreeneMale Papa
- Gage MunroeJose Phillips
- Megan CharpentierKate Phillips
- Lane EdwardsOfficer Dalton
Recommendations
- 50
Chicago Sun-Times
The Shack is a well-acted and sometimes moving but far too often slow-paced and unconvincing spiritual journey. - 50
Variety
The strangest thing about The Shack, and the reason it’s finally a so-so movie, is that all the rage and terror and dark-side vengeance that Mack has to learn to transcend is something we’re told about, but we never actually see him mired in it. - 50
The New York Times
A bit more editing to remove some of the airiness would have made for a better film. - 42
IndieWire
Spencer and Alush turn in the film’s best performances, and Spencer’s natural warmth and Alush’s deep charm keep The Shack hammering right along. - 40
Los Angeles Times
As directed by Stuart Hazeldine, even its jolts of surrealism feel curiously stilted; what it needed was a director whose reverence would be tempered by a healthy sense of the ludicrous, an ability to tap into and draw out the material’s stranger undercurrents. - 40
Time Out
For a faith-based film that aims to promote spiritual healing and prescribe forgiveness, The Shack is almost unforgivably joyless and visually bland. - 30
The Hollywood Reporter
However universal the perennial questions and struggles that The Shack illuminates, under Stuart Hazeldine’s plodding direction, its faith-based brand of self-help feels like being trapped in someone else’s spiritual retreat — in real time. - 30
New York Daily News
It takes its sweet time to achieve anything beyond being a grueling snoozefest.
