Brilliant and touching

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Even Malcolm McDowell couldn't save this movie. I kept waiting and waiting for the secret of the list to be revealed, but the movie only dabbled into the unexplained, instead turning into a morality play about good vs. evil. The background music was inappropriate to the point of being distracting (the background music in There Will Be Blood is the all time worst, but that's another story). Even the romance between the male and female leads just plodded along. Several of the plot lines could have been further developed, and the amount of time spent on the prayer scenes looked like fill. Very slow moving, and the more you watched, the more disappointed you became.

When his wealthy father dies, "Renny Jacobsen" (Chuck Carrington) is alarmed to discover that he will get very little from the will. Even more surprising is the fact that his father was also a member of a secret society called the "Covenant List of South Carolina" which consists of old families from the Confederacy. Since he is the only male heir from one of these families he is then invited to join. But there is more to this secret society than meets the eye and Renny is about to find out all kinds of disturbing things. Anyway, rather than detail the rest of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that what struck me most about this movie was that for a Christian movie there wasn't much spirituality and for a thriller there wasn't much suspense. At least I didn't think so. On top of that it started a bit slow and seemed a bit too vague in some places. But other than that I suppose it was watchable and I give it a rating of average.

Most of comments here says that The List (2007) is Christian movie. I don't see things like that. All, what I saw is request for praying and some Voodoo-like remote people control. This movie could be acceptable some 800 years ago, but in 21st Century... Main character was in fact not much better than old members of covenant. What he wanted ? Money in first place. To live without working. I can 'forgive' him that wanted girl :-), but is Christian wanting to live without doing anything ? Wanting money of pater, who he disliked ? If this was intended as some Christian propaganda, it could not be done worse. But probably someone took some money for that. For other nonsenses see other comments, forum.

The deceptive cover, title and very small hidden print of Power of Prayer tricked me into renting this movie.It started out really well and pulled me in. I REALLY liked it. Between 1/3 and 3/4's of it, the film started throwing in things that were not set up and made no sense. My first thought was, "This is not written by someone who knows how to tell a story." I ended up re-watching parts of the movie, thinking I had missed something.By the time I reached the last 1/5 of the movie, it was all BORING, ANNOYING, RELIGION THUMPING DIALOG that made no sense, said nothing, and was annoying to listen to; I turned off the sound and did a fast forward to the end.Don't waste your time with this flick.Beware of DVDs labeled Whitlow Films and Level Path Productions.And I'm a practicing Catholic.