THR3E

I watched this 2006 movie in the theater when it was released. It fell a little flat. But when I recently saw that it was going to show on cable, I thought, what the heck, maybe its not a bad TV movie. Before I tell you what I thought, I'll tell you a bit more about it. It's quite probable you've never heard of it. It wasn't a big release. It's actually a movie based on Ted Dekker's novel of the same name. If you know me, you know that Dekker is my all time favorite author....ever! So back when this movie was being released, I was excited and yes, I was there on opening night to support it! Part of the problem in the theater was that it was full of teenagers. And they kept laughing at the most inappropriate times. It made it hard to evaluate the movie on its own merit, although I do remember that I thought it was a bit...hmmm...too low budget. Maybe even a little cheesy. That's why I thought that if I gave it a second chance and watched it in my own controlled atmosphere, it might be a pretty good flick.

The story starts out with Kevin Parsons receiving a mysterious call, telling him that unless he confesses his "sin", he will die. The caller also gives Kevin a riddle to solve. Kevin has no idea what "sin" the caller is talking about. He escapes death that time, and soon, with the help of Jennifer, a police officer, and Samantha, a childhood friend, Kevin is trying to stay alive by figuring out what sin he is supposed to confess, and why the caller knows about it. The deeper the story goes, the more Kevin begins to dig into his traumatic childhood and finds a secret that only he knows. THR3E truly is, as it's tag line says, "a story of good, evil, and all that lies in between". This is one of Dekker's best books - very suspenseful, lots of action, twists and turns, and a shocker of an ending that leaves you breathless. This story should have made an awesome movie.

Should have.

I regret to say that the movie, even on TV, was just as cheesy as I first thought. The actors were a bit stiff, so you never quite connect with the characters. Yes, it's true that a book has a lot more time to make that connection, but it IS possible to translate that to a movie, and this one just didn't pull it off. The worst part was that the shocker ending was not anywhere near as powerful as it was in the book.

It pains me to give this movie a bad review, because I'd love to support anything that Ted Dekker does as a storyteller. But this movie was way below his usual level of brilliance. That said, I would highly recommend that you get your hands on the book. Once you read this one, you'll be hooked on Dekker.