Summary: This movie is about the lives of a very wealthy art dealer, his Christian wife and a black homeless man. As their lives fall apart, they then come together in a beautiful picture of Christian love, community and co-operation.

I will quickly admit this is not my type of movie. I am not really into emotional dramas. I read the book years ago and knew the plot, and from what I read, I knew the tears would tumble down if I saw the movies. They did. I was “forced” to go with a group of women (13 of us) from my church and as tears cascaded down the steps of the movie theater I vowed never to watch these kinds of movies again.

“Same King of Different as Me” is a very well made movie. The acting is superb and so is the story line. I was afraid they would make it too secular, but they didn’t. It is not overly religious either. Of course, like in any movie that was a book first, there is so much more I wish they put in, but I realize that directors are limited by time and money.  I did gasp when I realized I recognized Rene Zellweger’s voice, but not her face! I do remember reading somewhere that she had her uniquely beautiful, squinty eyes made larger. Pity. Either way, she did great in portraying  Deborah Hall and captured her humble and compassionate spirit. Djimon Hounsou is a tremendous actor, but he did struggle a little with Denver’s southern accent.  Other than that, the movie does inspire the Christian to get into the darkness and be a light to those who struggle being on their feet.

I recommend this movie to any drama or tear-jerker-movie lover. There is a brief scene where the couple deals with the pain of adultery, other than that the movie is very clean.

Here is my favorite Denver Moore quote: “I found out everybody’s different – the same kind of different as me. We’re all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or something in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless – just workin our way toward home.”