Based on the true story of Deborah (Renée Zellweger) and Ron Hall (Greg Kinnear), a wealthy Texas couple who befriended a violent and intimidating homeless man dubbed Suicide but named Denver (Djimon Hounsou), this heartfelt tear-jerking retelling captures the essence if not the full depth of the relationship that transformed these three, the Hall's children and their community.
Central to the movie is Debbie's character, whose faith drives her to forgive Ron's dalliance and involve him in her outreach work at the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth. Through a dream, she sees a man that will change the world; that man is manifested in Suicide, a large homeless loner that swings a baseball bat at whomever he feels threatened by at the mission. Debbie pushes a reluctant Ron to reach out to Suicide; Ron learns Suicide's name is Denver, and his harrowing background. The three of them steadily form a friendship and relationship of trust that includes their children Regan (Olivia Holt) and Carson (Austin Filson).
Unfortunately, as Denver predicts, because Debbie is making a positive impact on the world for the Lord, she attracts of the attention of His enemy, and is stricken with terminal cancer. However, she deals with her illness most gracefully and there are some sweet family moments to the end.
For fans of the book (like me), as is typically the case, there are some significant differences between the book and this movie including the focus of the title itself: the funeral speech draws a link between Denver and Debbie whereas the book's title refers to the sameness between Denver and Ron! Several important scenes have been altered (e.g. Denver praying outside Debbie's hospital has been replaced with a scene of the two of them sitting silently tearful on a bench) or cut (Denver doesn't drive Regan cross country) and Ron's entire background has been left out (though it's alluded to through the retrospective plot device of his writing the book) while an alternative storyline with his father Earl (Jon Voight) has been inserted (as a proxy for Denver's care of Mr. Ballantine?).
That being said, I'm still recommending the movie as the book's essential themes of love - and how that is manifested in outreach to the poor, forgiveness and hope are still intact.
The closing credits indicate that this was a 2016 production; the movie was originally slated for release in April, 2016, which was then pushed to February, 2017 before it was finally released on October 20, 2017. Besides the shift from Paramount Pictures to Pure Flix Entertainment for distribution, there may also have been other changes (reshoots and reediting?) that account for these delays.
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