When Caleb discovers the book’s daily challenges are tied into his parents’ newfound faith, his already limited interest is further dampened. Even though he wants to keep his promise to his father, Caleb becomes frustrated when every effort to win back his wife fails. He eventually asks his father, How he is supposed to show love to somebody who constantly rejects him and his father explains that this is the love God shows to people. People are constantly rejecting God and yet He patiently, maybe even stubbornly continues to love them. With this new information Caleb makes a life-changing commitment to love God and with God’s help, he begins to understand what it means to truly love his wife.
Caleb and Catherine Holt give the viewer a very good picture of how the breakdown of a marriage begins. In one of the first scenes between the Holt’s begins with them barely speaking in their kitchen. When they do speak it quickly turns into a heated argument. It’s in the heat of one of their arguments where Catherine has had enough and tells Caleb through tears that she wants a divorce.
It’s in that moment that the audience realizes that Caleb’s anger from his wife’s disrespect and Catherine’s bitterness from feeling rejected due in part to her husband’s unspoken addiction has ruined their marriage.
Catherine talking about the computer and at one point a pop up of a female face on Caleb’s computer only alludes to Caleb’s addiction in the movie. It’s obvious that his addiction is probably to Internet porn, but Catherine’s attitude makes it even more evident that Caleb is not the only problem.
Catherine also has problems of her own. She’s faced with financially supporting her father and sick Mother and becomes angry with her husband because he isn’t helping her with her family. Furthermore, she compounds their already strained marriage by sleeping in a separate bedroom and is openly hostile to him. All the while, she’s respectful and caring at work, and begins finding emotional fulfillment at her work as she begins to confide in a male doctor at the hospital about her sick mother’s needs.
Another brilliant angle to
As a friend, Simmons takes the indirect approach to encourage Caleb to make things right in his marriage, while John Holt takes an interactive approach by challenging his son to fight for his marriage through a 40-day experiment called The Love Dare.
Even though Caleb and Catherine’s marriage is the center of the movie, it’s not all tears and anger. In fact there are a few comical scenes, as well as, some intense action scenes with the firefighters too. Married or single, young or old