The movie is great thanks mostly to Ejiofor's performance and a good directing by Marston.

This is a hard movie to recommend without reservation. Casual viewers, and especially people with no investment in religious faith, may find it difficult to locate the dramatic resonance. But as a progressive Christian and a member of the LGBTQ community I rejoice in the message of this film. Its most striking quality is its fairness. No party in the central debate is needlessly demonized. This gives the narrative a potent and visceral truth. Ejiofor in particular depicts an inner wrestling, an interiority, that draws the viewer in. The (true) story deals with a well known African American Pentecostal preacher who puts his life and his ministry on the line when he decides to reject the doctrine of Hell. Later, he confronts a number of other long-held beliefs, including the proscription of gay relations. Without Netflix I don't know how this film would have managed to find an audience, but here it is: a nuanced exploration of faith that transcends our current cultural ravings over religion. The real Bishop Pearson is a vocal critic of our pseudo-evangelical 45th president, a man who is functionally an atheist by every measure, yet who is embraced by the figures that declared Pearson a heretic. Pearson, as depicted here, has a pathological need for popularity almost as acute as the current leader of the free world, but unlike that individual Pearson has an overriding interest in truth that renders the former obsolete. The film ends with a quiet baptism, a moment of grace well earned by all that precedes it.

I found the storyline and the acting very compelling.

As a movie, I found Come Sunday captivating and well filmed. However, once you do your research, you realize the movie's arc is somewhat deceiving. This movie is not about a Christian who doubts hell and tries to explore his Christianity to resolve this tension. Rather, it's the story of someone who has left the Christian faith and is now involved in New Thought and Unitarianism, and no longer holds the basic tenets of Christianity. We saw him live in a Q&A after the movie, and he seems to have taken on a larger than life personality that is not as humble and careful as that of the man in the film. Come Sunday does its audience a disservice in not telling the whole story of a man who has shifted out of Christianity into something quite different.

Not to bad of a movie. It explores questions of faith that I haven't seen done, but it fails to hit any high points of entertainment. A true story, which is always nice to see

A very honest, thoughtful movie with a wonderful cast.

A powerful movie. It touches the Heart. WONDERFULL

Chiwetel Ejiofor is outstanding as the preacher with a crisis in faith, but he could have been perfect in a more thoughtful understood film that dares to ask more question about its complicated subject matter.

This is a story of man's religious journey and its effect on those in his life. I found it to be a refreshing and honest look at the everchanging belief in faith and those who fear change or the TRUTH. The movie gave me the opportunity to further research the actual bishop that the movie is based on. What a wonderful movie among the other questionable works produced and distributed by Netflix

A film that shows the real struggle that not just Carlton Pearson had but that many Christians have when they start to explore and question their faith and come to the conclusion of Universal Reconciliation, the way many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ feel they have no choice but to abandon such people and how lonely it can feel at least when one starts to believe in the concept of Universal Reconciliation and not just that but how passionate one feels about Universal Reconciliation. Why this film doesn't go into any great detail with regards to Biblical Translations and misuse of old Greek Words like aion, and Hebrew words like Sheol being miis represented it does very well in conveying just how powerful the idea of Universal Reconciliation is. A really good film that if it gets you asking is worth watching.

"Come Sunday" is a film to which I felt a deep connection, even prior to its release. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the film takes place, and attended Higher Dimensions during the time the events of the film unfolded. I also attended Oral Roberts University, where much of the film was shot, and sang in Souls A'Fire - the gospel choir founded by Carlton Pearson while he was a student at ORU. That being said, I'm a cinephile to my core. Deep connections or not, I wanted to see Pearson's story told well. A corny film about a subject with which I'm deeply familiar would be worse than no film at all. What the film does well: Screenwriter Marcus Hinchey and director Joshua Marston do a wonderful job of presenting Pearson's story in an evenhanded fashion. You never get the sense that the filmmakers want to assert a particular point of view on their audience. We're allowed to watch the events unfold and make our own judgments about the subject matter. Church leaders are generally portrayed as people of conscience - as is Pearson. The fact that these two forces are acting with equal goodwill, in their own eyes, is at the heart of the film's core conflict. The personal exchange that Pearson has with a member of the Council of Bishops regarding where the Bishop's own father will spend eternity exemplifies what the film does well. The film's pacing is also refreshingly measured. Being privy to a bit of the backstory, and many of the finer points surrounding this tale, I worried that the filmmakers might become bogged down with the minutiae of a very complex journey. It was impressive to watch how handily they circumvented the over-telling of this story. They homed in on the most essential elements and avoided the pitfall of information overload. Martin Sheen's portrayal of Oral Roberts was just brilliant. Other than the fact that they are both older white men, Sheen doesn't bear any particular resemblance to Roberts. No prostheses were used (thankfully), and he didn't attempt to mimic Roberts' vocal patterns. What he does though, is what every great actor does - he locks in to the essence of who Oral Roberts was, somehow. For the purposes of this film, the essence of Roberts was that of an older, fatherly, southern preacher who had amassed a fair amount of wealth and influence, and who was proud of the relationship he had forged with this young minister of color. Yes, Pearson was a feather in his cap, but they cared for one another. We see the love Roberts has for Pearson, and we see Roberts' own conflict at having to publicly distance himself from Pearson's threatening theology. What the film does not do well:Though I don't claim to have a deep, personal knowledge of Carlton D Pearson, I have spent a fair amount of time observing him and have had a handful of conversations with him through the years. My family has known him since he was a student at Oral Roberts University in the early '70's. We watched his ascent over the decades, and it was no mistake that he landed where he did - at the very apex of the Charismatic/Pentecostal mountain top in the buckle of the Bible Belt. What makes him such a magnetic figure is his lightness - a piercing charisma that is at once welcoming and urgent. He is California born, and Oklahoma bred. He is a shining light - able to communicate equally well with peasants and kings with humor and ease. He is charm, personified. I didn't feel that Chiwetel Ejiofor zeroed in on what makes Carlton Pearson such an engaging figure. His portrayal is of a generic southern black minister -- interchangeable with any number of southern black movie ministers. He's conflicted, he's convicted, and he is under siege - but never once is he likable. The difficulty in watching Pearson's struggle from my vantage point was seeing a man who exuded pure light be taken to such a dark place by his circumstances. As talented as Ejiofor is, his natural disposition did not allow him to bring the kind of joy to this performance that made Pearson's heartbreak so... heartbreaking. It was also hard to see Gina Pearson (played by Condola Rashad) be reduced to the standard Movie Wife trope. She was portrayed as timid and shy, and served the obligatory role of the long-suffering wife. Having only observed her from afar, that was not my perception of who she is as a human being. But then, it's the movies, and women rarely carry any presence or hold any agency in men's stories.Hollywood's attempt to capture the nuances of the Pentecostal experience have left me dry, for the most part. Films like The Blues Brothers (1980), Leap of Faith (1992) and pretty much every Tyler Perry movie ever made have left me cringing at their attempts to portray the chaotic jubilance of 'Black Church'. In many ways, this film is no different. The church scenes skip through the 'greatest hits' of Pentecostal services with great predictability - the fiery orator whipping the crowd to frenzied heights - rigorous call and response - laying on of hands - it's all here on glorious display. In this way, Come Sunday does nothing to distinguish itself from these prior efforts, and only adds to the canon of 2-dimensional portrayals of the African American religious experience. It was disappointing that the screenwriter did little to channel the eloquence, wit and insight that are the hallmark of Pearson's sermons. We see only boiler-plate exhortations to 'save souls' and 'lift Him up!' followed by lots of old-timey singing and dancing in the aisles. The world of Pentecostal preaching in that part of the country is competitive, to say the least. You don't ascend to the heights that Pearson did with 'sho-nuff' swag and hackneyed aphorisms.The ending is also a bit clunky and unsatisfying. I don't know what I was expecting to see, but what I did see was a final bit of sermonizing in an apparent attempt to put a bow on something that didn't really require one. It would have been nice to see a moment of introspection that provided us with further insight into this man's state of mind after watching his world fall apart. Conclusion: Much like The Apostle (1997), Come Sunday depicts the struggle of a minister at the crossroads. It's surprisingly fair, and doesn't attempt to create false heroes or villains. Martin Sheen delivers a standout performance as Pearson's mentor, Oral Roberts, who attempts to bring him back into the fold. Despite his slight resemblance to Pearson, Chiwetel Ejiofor was somewhat miscast in the lead role, bringing very little of the charisma and charm that made Pearson a standout figure in the world of Evangelical Christianity. Still, the film is engaging overall, and presents a rare effort on the part of Hollywood to accurately depict a story of faith from the inside.

I think it was beautifully done. I enjoyed the spirit in which the movie was done and I believe it will help some people to really open their minds and embrace the shift that is happening in the church community and our country. I did not want the movie to end.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is the anchor that keeps "Come Sunday" well grounded. It works well as a morality tale that cautions about the scare tactics from the extreme religious right. Despite this, it is not a film that trashes religion and those who truly believe. It feels too much like a made for television movie, but the cast keeps it from feeling too cheap. Great effort with pretty good results.

Real-life story explores faith, spirituality; mature themes.

It's worth streaming Come Sunday on Netflix just for the performances