This is the movie I wished I had unearthed and watched with all of the clan before my big college kids and Grandma left last Friday to go back to Idaho and Utah. I was planning on having a movie night while they were here, but it just didn’t work out. What with Family Home Evening, camping one night, our church youth group meeting, a trip to the temple over two hours away, our church women’s meeting (Relief Society), and a baseball game, there wasn’t an open night to watch a movie. We even didn’t go to two baseball practices to make the family movie night work, but I ended up leaving my journal at the Relief Society meeting so I had to go back and hunt it down, after my daughter and mother in law ditched me to go use the restroom without telling me! This led me to walk all over the chapel looking for them! Such  rigamarole! We wasted a whole hour with all that, including driving down incredibly bumpy back dirt roads to my friend’s house, since she had picked up the journal after I left. The kids and Grandma left Friday morning, the morning of our night of the week when we “only” had a baseball practice going on and nothing else. So we finally got to have a family movie night on Friday, after baseball practice. I discovered this gem of a movie and it just so happened to have an Easter message.

It’s called “The Climb” and I heartily recommend it with 5 out of 5 stars. You can watch the whole thing above. It is the story of two young single adult men who each make their own journey. Each one yearns to find fulfillment by proving himself in a quest to climb Chicanagua, a mountain in Chile. They act as foils for each other, as one climbs the mountain in dedication to his deceased wife, and the other climbs in order to “one up” his estranged father. The movie features even more contrasting relationships, all centered around the father/son relationship, which all point towards the father/child relationship we each have with God. Each of these relationships give the viewer lots of food for thought.

I love that the movie mentions the Bible, and commitment to God. If you watch this movie with young children, be prepared to answer any questions about “the birds and the bees” as there is  mention of pregnancy out of wedlock. It’s all done tastefully. If your children are used to hearing about people expecting babies then they probably won’t bring up the issue at all.

I also love that the movie shows a romantic relationship that ends in marriage. Those are hard to find in today’s movies. But ultimately, what I love about this  movie is the message of sacrifice and the symbolism that this sacrifice represents, the Ultimate Sacrifice of our elder brother, the Savior Jesus Christ. So if you believe in Easter being a season, and not just a day, watch this movie for Family Home Evening or Family Movie Night soon, even though Easter is “over” and talk about how it relates to Easter.