A Smile as Big as the Moon - Hallmark Hall of Fame

MOVIE REVIEW


A Smile as Big as the Moon
Hallmark Hall of Fame

*Based Upon True Story and Book, also Titled: A Smile as Big as the Moon

Network: ABC

Original Air Date: January 29, 2012


CAST:

John Corbett ... Mike Kersjes
Jessy Schram ... Robynn
Cynthia Watros ... Dr. Deborah Barnhart
Logan Huffman ... Scott
David Lambert ... Steve
Cameron Deane Stewart ... Josh Morgan
Mike Pniewski ... Big Dan
Matthew Lintz ... Shawn Kersjes
Louise Linton ... Julie
Macsen Lintz ... Ryan Kersjes
Jimmy Bellinger ... Matt
Bruce McKinnon ... Col. Weschler
Chris Cozort ... Diner Patron
Keith Flippen ... David Schmidt
Tammy Arnold ... Home Ec Teacher
Abigail Corrigan ... Lisa
Fred Griffith ... Judge
Brantley Pollock ... Techno Star #1
Darrell Rackley ... Parent
Tyrin Niles Wyche ... Jamal
Breezy Eslin ... Stephanie
Abby Corrigan ... Lisa
Tanner Dow ... Adam

PLOT:

from Star News:

According to creators.com, “A Smile as Big as the Moon” is based on the popular book by Mike Kersjes with Joe Layden about Kersjes’ unique voyage into the unknown. A high school football coach and special-education teacher, he decided that if his special-ed students wanted to go to space camp — which they did — then they should be able to do so. And he found a way to get a bunch of kids with conditions ranging from Down syndrome to Tourette’s into a demanding program filled with gifted science students, with amazing results.


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Have A Little Faith - Hallmark Hall of Fame

MOVIE REVIEW

Have A Little Faith

"Hallmark Hall of Fame" Movie

Network: ABC and Hallmark Channel

Original Air Date: November 27, 2011

*Will Premiere first on ABC

CAST:

Laurence Fishburne ... Rev. Henry Covington
Martin Landau ... Rabbi
Bradley Whitford ... Mitch Albom



PLOT:


This Movie is based on Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom’s best-selling nonfiction book of the same name about his relationship with his childhood rabbi and the pastor of a decaying church. The movie is expected to air on ABC in December.


Book Summary (from Amazon):

What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together?

In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere.

Albom's first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom's old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.

Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he'd left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor--a reformed drug dealer and convict--who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.

Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.

As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds--and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor's wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi's last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.

Have a Little Faith is a book about a life's purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man's journey, but it is everyone's story.



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