CIARAN HINDS

Does this man have a familiar face?  Perhaps it is because this actor has a list of movies as long as your leg.

He is Ciaran (pronounced Keeran) Hinds, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and friend to another Irish actor, Liam Neeson.

Ciaran Hinds has been in the latest HARRY POTTER and has played everything from Lord Tarleton in AMAZING GRACE to King Herod in THE NATIVITY STORY.

Lately, he has also been in two spy films...TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY...and THE DEBT.  We found one of those movies to be gray-drab and rather tedious, while the other was a thriller.

Gray TINKER may have been too hard for us to keep up with.  It had a number of characters and subplots and we thought it failed to flesh out the characters enough for us to care what happened to them.  Gary Oldham played the main character and his face never changed throughout the whole movie.  Spooks may need to be inscrutable and Spockish, but only once when his wife hurt him emotionally did a tiny nerve twitch under one of Oldham's eyes.  Yesh.

On the other hand, THE DEBT made us feel that we were right in the kettle of fish along with Hinds and Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson.  This is an R-rated, classic tussle of good and evil with a script that blew life into each character and flashbacks that kept you on your toes.  Helen Mirren is great in this movie; she's all scar-faced and intense.  We thought THE DEBT might be scary so we got a Redbox and watched it in the afternoon.

The contrast of these movies illustrate how varied life's pace can be.  Things may be going along all gray-tedious for us, only to round the corner into a frenetic adrenaline surge.  It takes mature faith to stay between the ditches.  Sunday morning Charles Stanley explained how to get such a mature faith.  One of Dr. Stanley's points was to stay close to God's word.  He reasoned...


1. We lose our focus if we don't stay plugged into Scripture.  God's Spirit takes God's words and brings them back to my mind so I will remember what God has promised.  God's promises fuel faith.  I know that I lost my focus during the movie TINKER because the plot was too hard to follow.


2. God's words show His character and are a window into what He is like.  I can't love the Lord if I don't know what He's like.  And in the same way, TINKER was a struggle because the characters were under-defined.


Final caveat.  The opinions offered about these two spy thrillers are worth what you paid for them.  Everyone has an opinion.  


But in matters of faith, we seek God's opinion.  That opinion is defined in His Word, where He promises an amazing thriller ahead for those who lean back in faith on Him.


Jump in before the expiration date.