Indivisible Parent Guide

Indivisible: a title that really only makes sense if you know the tagline, “One marriage. One family. Under God”. While it may have been intended to be an uplifting film about an Army Chaplain, it dramatically misses the mark and turns what is an inspiring true story into a treacly two hours. It features a few too many montages, an over-abundance of American flags, and so much preaching I felt like I had gone to church for two hours. By the way, I’ve gone to church for three hours every Sunday for my whole life. I like church. A lot. I did not like this movie.

The “based on a true family” story begins with Darren Turner (Justin Bruening) and his wife Heather (Sarah Drew) as they prepare for his first deployment to Iraq in 2007. Turner is an Army Chaplain and right out of the gate he’s just a down to earth kind of fella who’s here to help strengthen everyone’s families. While others continue to warn Darren and Heather about the difficulties of deployment on a marriage, they are confident in their devotion to each other and to God.

As expected, deployment takes a serious toll on their marriage, and each of them individually. Communication shuts down, resentment builds up, and by the time Darren comes home their marriage sort of hobbles along. That is until some therapy, some tough love from a friend, and some montage music comes to the rescue.

This was an incredibly mild PG-13, and older children would be able to handle the action and war violence, though I’m not sure how interested they’d be in a movie that is mostly about resolving marital issues. Death is portrayed throughout the film. Scenes where families cope with death are emotionally intense, but also overacted and poorly written. The whole point of the movie is finding and keeping faith, working through doubts, and building strong families. So while the themes are uplifting, they are also unfortunately heavy-handed. The script has a habit of explaining everything we’ve already seen, which is a bit insulting to viewers. The assumptions the film makes about the audience are at times very broad. Being a devout Christian, I understood the language and implications of conversion, but I had no idea what the Armor of God coins that Turner kept pushing onto everyone were about. I felt simultaneously included and excluded in some key plot elements that had no explanation. So while the content is pretty family friendly, I found myself repeatedly checking my watch and rolling my eyes at the overly saccharine portrayal of Darren Turner