Drama / Biographical
2026 / 110 minutes
Rating: 9/10

This is… wonderful.

In the original, MercyMe singer Bart Millard shared the true story of how he overcame an abusive childhood to pen one of today’s most popular Christian songs, I Can Only Imagine.

Now he’s back, it’s twenty years later, and he’s wondering what happens after your dreams have come true, but you still have a lot of life to keep living.

Bart, and his wife Shannon, get a scare early on when they discover their son Sam has type 1 diabetes. That means he’s going to have to take insulin – with all the needles that involves – for the rest of his life. Sam, understandably, hates that and puts off his shots whenever he can. But that leaves his parents worried, and has Bart always hovering. Protecting Sam from his own carelessness puts Bart in a no-win situation: if Bart doesn’t nag and push, Sam seems certain to end up in the hospital again, or worse, but all this hovering leaves his son resentful. It’s left their relationship frayed.

Add to that, Bart hasn’t written a hit in ages, and has a fierce bout of writer’s block. So he’s not succeeding on the home front, and not doing so great at his job either, and now he just wants to know when it’s going to get easier. He wants God to tell him, why does it have to be so hard?

The original was a pretty intense story, and it’s more of the same again. But while this story is all about Bart and Sam and Shannon, what it’s really about is how God provided for them all, not by making it easy, but by using different people around them, to redirect their focus back on Him.

And because it’s true – because this really happened – it also rings true. Christians don’t write a lot of great dramas, because we can’t seem to manage to capture God well in our own fiction. We’ll leave Him out of our story altogether, and what are we saying about His importance when we do that? Or we include Him, but only as a rescuing device – we’ve written our characters into corner that only God can get them out of, and He arrives right on cue. But that’s a Hallmark, or maybe AI, version of real life, and what it says about God isn’t true either – He doesn’t come at anyone’s beck.

Except when He does.

Our God does do miracles. He does arrive right in the nick of time. But He also uses the blood of the martyrs to grow His Church. And why He does which is a mystery we have to leave with Him, in trust. Bart wondered why God doesn’t make it easier, and it’s because God knew better than Bart what he and his family needed. It’s not how Bart would have written his story. But it’s how God did. And it’s wonderful.

Cautions

The only cautions would be age-related. This is for adults, and not because there’s anything scandalous, just weighty. This is about dads trying to figure out how to be dads, and about wrestling with God when we don’t understand the struggles He’s put in front of us.

Also, there is a flashback scene of Bart’s dad threatening to attack him, and kids don’t need to see that. So, 12 and up advised.

Conclusion

While this is, like the original, quite the emotional rollercoaster, there’s plenty of fun. The guys on tour are pulling pranks and swapping great stories. And, of course, there’s fantastic music all around. It’s not technically a “musical” but with the music up front and everywhere this is totally a musical.

So, a tear-jerker certainly – have the kleenex box nearby – but by far the best film I’ve seen this year.