‘I Can Only Imagine 2’: One Of The Best Faith-Based Films Ever Made
(REVIEW) Many people (myself included) have argued that faith-based films are now mainstream. If they are, a lot of that credit goes to “I Can Only Imagine.”
When it came out, the film was a watershed moment for the faith-based film industry. It was the highest-grossing independent film of 2018 and gained a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes. This showed that faith-based films could succeed in the mainstream commercially and critically.
Not only did this create more investment in faith-based projects by Hollywood studios, but it also shaped what future faith-based films looked like. “I Can Only Imagine” was a true story, feel-good family romantic drama about forgiveness and following your dreams, geared toward married moms. This became the blueprint for most faith-based projects going forward, whether this was “American Underdog,” “Unsung Hero” or “The Hill.”
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Now, eight years later, “I Can Only Imagine 2” hits theaters. This film is not only even better than the original, but one of the best faith-based sequels — even best faith-based films — of all time. The film is a perfect example of how the faith-based industry has grown: it can deconstruct some of its weakest tropes while remaining faithful to its core messages and audience.
“I Can Only Imagine 2” picks up where the first film left off. After the breakout success of “I Can Only Imagine,” MercyMe’s Bart Millard (John Michael Finnley) is living the dream — sold-out arenas, a devoted fanbase and a thriving career. But Bart’s world begins to shift under the weight of devastating challenges, including a life-changing diagnosis for his young son, Sam (Sammy Dell).
As Bart struggles to hold his family together, his wife, Shannon (Sophie Skelton), becomes the steady anchor — caring for Sam, supporting Bart, and holding on to hope when it feels distant. When Sam and newcomer Tim Timmons (Milo Ventimiglia) join the band for their biggest tour yet, Bart must navigate the demands of fatherhood and the pressures of fame, all while helping his son find the courage to sing his own song.
It’s not just the movie’s existence that shows how faith-based films have grown, but also their storytelling. “I Can Only Imagine 2” is more honest and complex than most movies, let alone faith-based ones. Faith-based films are often criticized for suggesting that praying to God will solve all your problems, while secular films suggest that achieving your dreams/living authentically will solve them. But “I Can Only Imagine 2” explicitly frames itself as a subversion of these tropes, telling a story about what happens “after” you’ve achieved your dreams and your problems are fixed.
The film follows Bart Millard after he’s forgiven his abusive father and achieved his musical dreams, and shows that suffering still hasn’t gone away. He doesn’t know how to be a good husband without running away to do his musical tour. He’s a father now, but doesn’t know how to set firm rules without being abusive like his dad.
What’s particularly great is how emotionally raw and nuanced the film portrays these issues. When Bart discovers his son has a life-threatening form of diabetes, he is so overcome that he has to leave the room, a scene where the filmmakers let us sit in that visceral pain for longer than you typically see in cinema. We watch him lose his temper multiple times with his family and with his friends. These moments aren’t treated as layups for a lesson, but simply real struggles common to many people.
Likewise, Bart and his wife Shannon have conflict, but they portray it as normal, kind, and full of underlying love and respect. Neither she nor the filmmakers treats his flaws as a husband as abuse, or a reflection of toxic masculinity, but as a normal part of being married to a flawed human.
This is a common thread throughout the film: that ordinary, good people go through pain, have struggles, have flaws, and have to work through them. It’s the film's portrayal of this normalcy that is probably most powerful and shocking. When Bart and MercyMe tour together, we get to see a quietly perfect vision of what normal, healthy, masculine friendship looks like. It’s something that’s never preached at us; it’s simply portrayed as normal.
All of this reinforces the message of the film: That God is there with you in your struggles, not just to help you solve them. Tim Millard sings “It is Well with My Soul” at one of their concerts and explains it was written by Horatio Spafford in 1873 after his four daughters died in a tragic transatlantic ship accident. Every character has to wrestle with this: How do I live my life when God doesn’t take away my cancer or my child’s illness? In this film, faith gives comfort and tells a story about the struggle without taking the struggle itself away.
This is an important message and a sign that faith-based films have “grown up” as a genre. We all love the stories of the miracles of God where he fixes our circumstances. But for most Christians, our faith does is give us a different story to tell about those circumstances. Faith tells us how to redeem those circumstances through our actions. This comfort, community and ethical teaching are also what even non-religious people value about faith. This means that this message shows how “faith-based films” can tell stories that are just as mainstream — if not more so — than secular projects.
“I Can Only Imagine 2” comes very close to achieving the goal of what the modern American faith-based film industry was created to achieve: to represent life as religious people experience it.
Religious people experience tragedy, but interpret it through the lens of faith. Religious people have conflict in their marriages, but they often don’t interpret it as an indictment of patriarchy or toxic masculinity. You can agree or disagree with these real-life interpretations, but the fact is that’s how many people of faith interpret events and circumstances in their lives. And this film gives that imagination the representation it's been lacking for so long.
The film isn’t flawless. The third act does lose some steam. Many scenes toward the end devolve into a series of lectures back and forth about the film’s message. And some scenes — like Bart going to therapy — feel shoehorned in to make a point. But these are minor concerns compared to what the film gets right.
Faith has always been mainstream because faith has always been normal. With “I Can Only Imagine 2”, the faith-based film industry is starting to take its rightful place, representing that normalcy.
“I Can Only Imagine 2” is in theaters starting Feb. 20.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.