God Bless the Broken Road Parent Guide

Amber Hill (Lindsay Pulsipher) is barely treading water. The death of her husband (Darren Hill) in Afghanistan has left her with a daughter, Bree (Makenzie Moss), a house she can no longer afford, mother-in-law problems, crushing grief, and shattered faith in God.

Cody Jackson (Andrew W. Walker) is a slow learner. The stock car driver keeps on crashing cars. Cody is so obsessed with speed that he refuses to listen to cooler heads telling him to decelerate in the turns so he can accelerate in the straightway. His exasperated manager sends him to Amber’s small Kentucky town to train with local garage owner and racing expert, Joe Carter (Gary Grubbs).

Will Amber heal from her husband’s death? Will she recover her faith in a loving God? Will Cody finally listen to good advice and stop wrecking cars? And will Amber and Cody be able to help each other?

God Bless the Broken Road would be a better movie if the answer to any of these questions were in doubt. The movie’s biggest weakness is its predictability: there is very little uncertainty about how the story is going to turn out.

That being said, viewers looking for a family-friendly movie that extols the virtues of Christianity and American patriotism will find little to complain about here. The film has a strong didactic message about the power of faith and prayer for oneself and others and it provides numerous examples of kind, caring church members who reach out to support the young widow and her daughter. Positive messages about community, compassion and forgiveness are the highlights of this picture.

The only potential content issues center around the ambush in which Darren Hill (Liam Matthews) is killed. Firearms and rocket propelled grenades are used in this scene and American soldiers are wounded and killed. The violence is highly sanitized, though, and no blood or graphic injuries are visible.

Families looking for a faith-promoting evangelical Christian production will likely enjoy this release. But those with different belief systems will likely not find the same satisfaction walking the “broken road”.