When this 2021 film started, I noticed that the only immediately familiar name in the opening credits was Corbin Bernsen, who was the third-billed member of the cast. Bernsen’s presence in the film did not surprise me. Bernsen has appeared in several faith-based films and he’s even directed a few.
What did surprise me was just how briefly Bernsen’s appearance actually waas. It’s a blink-and-you’ll miss it appearance and, unless I somehow missed it, I don’t think he actually has a line of dialogue in the film. He plays the uncle of one of the film’s main characters. He’s an archeologist and, whenever he finds any ancient glass at the site of any of his digs, he sends it to his nephew. The nephew eventually decides to put all that glass to good use by taping it all together and using it as the frames for his previously frameless glasses. Suddenly, whenever he puts on the glasses, he can see the past!
That’s good because one of his professors has felt guilty ever since his grandson was kidnapped. So now, he can just put on the glasses and see who did the abducting. Yay! However, another professor — a physicist — wants the glasses for himself so he drugs our hero and steals the glasses. Luckily, everything works out in the end. Bad professor goes to jail. Good professor stops drinking and is reunited with his family. And the guy with the glasses gets a recording contract in Nashville.
I guess the glasses are meant to represent faith. And the bad scientist is meant to represent everyone who says that science is more important than faith. I’m not sure that glasses that allow you to see into the past is the best way sell the idea of faith. I mean, if you’re so inclined, I guess you could spend as much time as you want praying for a pair of magic glasses that will allow you to see into the past but, at some point, you’re going to have to admit that there’s no such thing as magic glasses, no matter how much you want to believe in them. In this case, the scientist laughing at you would be proven right.
I had another thought while watching this film. A good sound mix is really important. If you want people to get anything out of your movie, it’s important that they be able to hear what your characters are saying. It’s important that the characters actually sound like they’re all in the same room as opposed to just standing in a booth and reading their lines off a piece of paper. The sound was all over the place. Sometimes, I had to strain to hear everything. Sometimes, I winced because the movie was too loud. Considering how talky this film is and how often the action segues into flashback, this movie needed a much cleaner sound to it. There’s more to making a good film than focusing the image, though this film struggled with that as well.
Anyway, the most interesting thing about this film is Corbin Bernsen showing up for 2 minutes and not saying anything. Has Bernsen become the poor man’s Eric Roberts?
Through the Shattered Lens 