Unplanned (2019)

On Friday a friend of mine who is very committed to the pro-life movement invited me to go see the new movie Unplanned, so my going was to me, rather unplanned. When I first became aware of the movie, and knew nothing of the plot, judging from the title and the poster I assumed it was going to be some kind of horror movie, and it is, though not in a conventional sense. Unplanned is the story of Abby Johnson, the one time director of a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic and her conversion to the anti-abortion cause. Given the subject matter the movie can at times be very difficult to sit through, there was even a scene or two where I had to look away from the screen.

The movie of course is an advocacy film, it wants its audience to feel disgusted about abortion. Now this probably is not going to be a problem because very few people who aren't already disgusted about abortion are going to go see this movie. Add to that the production company is having a very hard time finding venues that will even consent to run advertising for it, though when I saw it on opening day here in Utah the theater was packed, and I was surprised going in to see Glenn Beck there, in person, talking about the movie and its need for word of mouth marketing.

I don't know if I could 'recommend' this movie in a traditional sense, though I am okay with making people who might be curious aware of its existence, but know going in what type of movie your getting. This is probably the first R rated Christian film I've seen since The Passion of the Christ. The movie is remarkably well put together given its apparent budget, decent production value, really good structure, good writing, some of the supporting actors can be a little hokey, but a nice sometimes understated performance from lead Ashley Bratcher. The film felt pretty honest to me, though I'm sure Planed Parenthood disagrees with its portrayal. The last thing I'll say about the movie is that I didn't feel like it was outright contemptuous of people who disagree with its position, which is kind of what I was expecting so I wanted to acknowledge that. **1/2