Grade: A- | Genre: Fantasy/Drama/Adventure
Summary: A beautiful, honest-to-goodness family film that has eternal messages to share and reminds us, through the presence of a saintly lion, of the reason for this holiday season.

If there is such a thing as an innocent movie these days, this film is it. Even entirely animated cartoon flicks have risque one-liners that are geared more toward adults than children, but not The Chronicles of Narnia. C.S. Lewis, a respected English author and close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the "Rings" trilogy, produced his seven-set chronicles after he returned from to his Protestant faith from a period of atheism. In fact, we have a devout Catholic to thank for his Christian-based works -- Tolkien himself. The story of their friendship is fascinating enough, but while both authors embraced spiritual themes in writing their epic works, C.S. Lewis was more unabashed in sharing Christian principles. In a time of strife across the world, it seems as if movies that have Christian-based themes are being welcome without shyness as this movie out grossed King Kong and most other films from this past year in its opening weekend. And guess what? You do not have to be Christian to appreciate the messages of sacrifice, forgiveness, unconditional love, and good triumphing over evil. For those who have read and loved The Chronicles of Narnia, the added plus is that the movie is utterly based on the book. Who knew Hollyweird had it in them? What a novel idea. Someone writes a tremendous book, and the director and producers stick to the story -- maybe this will start a new trend.