A father (a just adequate Sam Worthington) grieving for his kidnapped
and presumably murdered four-year- old daughter receives a mysterious invitation to come and talk things out with God in the very same abandoned shack where the crime was committed.

He summons the courage to go, but finds the previously decrepit structure all nice and pretty, presented in a garish Technicolor palette usually seen in Nicholas Sparks romantic weepies and indeed occupied by God. The Almighty is represented here by three new-agey beings: Octavia Spencer, Avraham Aviv Alush, and Sumire Matsubara. They talk. A lot. Kumbaya.

As faith-based films about forgiveness go, this glacially paced spiritual journey is inexcusably joyless, way too long, maudlin, unconvincing, and not remotely uplifting.

But when all is said and done, the movie does prove one thing: that Octavia Spencer can work miracles, even with material as insipid as this. (132 min)