The Most Reluctant Convert : the untold story of CS Lewis
DVD – Fellowship for Performing Arts, 2021 74 minutes £12.99
This is a quite excellent production, superbly acted and filmed in and around Oxford, showing the progress of the life of CS Lewis from ‘hard-boiled atheist to the most renowned Christian author of the past century’. A reluctant convert to the Christian faith, indeed.
Lewis as a mature man, played superbly by Max McLean, looks back at his life with flashbacks showing the influences upon him from family, friends and education.
An interesting and effective filmic ploy is to have the ageing Lewis on the screen at the same time as the younger Lewis. Brilliantly done.
The developing story of Lewis’s intellectual struggle between his initial commitment to materialism and his growing realisation that Christian belief was tenable, coherent and liveable is vividly portrayed in a script using Lewis’s own words, especially form his autobiography ‘Surprised by Joy’.
This film received rave reviews so if you have only half a chance to watch the dvd, you will never regret it.
Almost certainly, you will want to view it a second time as I did.