**_Legalism and naïveté threaten to destroy a family in a Texas town_**

The daughter (Andrea Bowen) of the pastor of a small town in east Texas (Ron Jackson) comes home after several years in Houston living a wayward life with her drug-dealing beau. She reflects on the chain of events that led to her destructive course and tries to put the pieces back together.

"The Preacher’s Daughter” (2012) is an Indie drama that was picked up by Lifetime and aired with the cussing bleeped out and one or two edgy scenes trimmed. Thankfully, the uncensored version is readily available. The story is similar to the obscure and underrated "Beyond the Farthest Star" (2013), but arguably better. While not autobiographical, you can tell writer/director Michelle Mower grew up as a pastor’s daughter because everything’s so real.

Mower doesn’t make the mistake of making a certain character frothing at the mouth with ee-vil. He’s basically a decent man, but he has carnal weaknesses and it’s a slow spiral into hell. What goes down should’ve never happened in the first place. Anyone with common sense knows you don’t put a nubile young female in a situation where she’s alone with a handsome older male for long periods of time. It’s literally asking for trouble. The first step in resisting temptation is to not unnecessarily be put into a place of temptation in the first place.

Someone criticized the film as “anti-Christian,” but it’s not. It’s anti-legalism and anti-naïveté, not to mention anti-hypocrisy. One issue is the stifling over-protection of well-meaning parents. Rachel (Jamie Teer) insightfully points out that she didn’t know what was worse, having parents who care too much or ones who don’t give a hoot at all. Both extremes are not good, but at least with parents who are overprotective their motivation is usually love… and love is the only thing that can overcome the shackles of legalism or libertinism (which are two sides of the same bad coin).

There are little gems of insights interspersed throughout, like the irony of the ‘bad’ girl being a virgin and the folly of making rash judgments.

But doesn’t the overt cussing by a few characters and the sex scene make this an anti-Christian movie? No, it makes it realistic. After all, people cuss in real life every day, including many Christians. I’m not saying it’s good, just that it’s the way it is. Thankfully, it’s arguably not overdone, which is similar to the way a bit o’ cussing was included in “John, 316” (2020).

As for the sex scene (which isn’t very explicit), doesn’t the Bible itself chronicle such scenes, like David & Bathsheba, not to mention Lot’s daughters? What about Judah and his daughter-in-law in Genesis 38? Accounts like these depict life in a fallen world, nothing more, nothing less.

One critic said that the film’s too tame for non-Christian viewers, but if it were any edgier you’d have the hopeless melancholy of “Gardens of the Night” (2008).

The ending leaves some things up in the air, but isn’t that the way it is in real life? This is a slice-of-life in Hannah’s spiritual sojourn. If she’s wise, there’s no where to go but up. Yet that has to do with her NEXT chapter.

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, and was shot in Alvin, Texas, which is just south of Houston, with some scenes done in the big city.

GRADE: A/A-