Sketch (Christian Movie Review)
With irresistible creative energy fueled by razor-sharp writing, wacky worldbuilding, and an abundance of heart, Sketch is a delightful film from start to finish.
About the Film
There is no limit to the array of delightfully bizarre and wacky things a child’s imagination can produce. Sketch is a story about that creative power being (literally) unleashed into the world, and the film itself manages to harness some of that manic creativity. With irresistible creative energy fueled by razor-sharp writing, wacky world building, and an abundance of heart, Sketch is a delightful film from start to finish.
Hollywood regularly proves the biblical maxim that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Sketch contains echoes of plenty of other stories, from the central “drawings-coming-to-life” concept of Harold and The Purple Crayon to the spookiness of Goosebumps to the emotional themes of Bridge to Terabithia and IF. Blend these familiar elements together, add a splattering of Spielbergian wonder, and the result is a lovingly crafted family adventure film. It captures the best aspects of other family adventure films without feeling derivative.
The writing is so crisp and the direction so confident that it’s shocking that it is writer/director Seth Worley’s debut feature film. Every part of it seems to have been crafted with love and intentionality. The “living sketches” are delightfully wacky and (with a few minor exceptions) feel believable and well-integrated, especially considering the film’s presumably modest budget. The spectacle of the animated creatures may be what draws audiences to the theater, but the film’s true strength is its human characters. The first living sketch isn’t revealed until 30 minutes into the runtime, but I was never bored or anxious to “get to the action.” The relationship dynamic between characters—during both humorous and heartfelt scenes—is so compelling that the film is as effective as a family drama as it is as an imaginative creature feature.
Actor Tony Hale is perfectly cast as an overwhelmed single dad, and the child actors are great in their roles too. The clear standout is Bianca Belle, a young actress making her feature film debut. She is a star in the making, with a commanding screen presence that is rare for someone her age. She adeptly handles her character’s humorous macabre sensibilities as well as the more weighty and serious dramatic elements.
There’s a moment in the film when, after seeing the shockingly dark and violent content of his troubled daughter’s sketchbook, a father encourages the girl, “I think life is all about balancing the good and the bad. If you don’t carry the good with you too, it will only make the bad stronger. I’m not saying get rid of the bad. I’m just saying you might want to include a little bit of the good.” Sketch internalizes that message, balancing light and dark with an honesty that doesn’t do a disservice to either.
As someone who grew up in the heyday of Goosebumps, I think there is value in spooky tales aimed at younger audiences (peruse the pre-Disney versions of your favorite classic fairytales sometime. Yikes!). As a PG-rated movie, Sketch is not particularly “scary” (and it softens the blow that the creatures are all made of crayon and chalk), but its horror-inspired elements may prove too intense for some young viewers.
Sketch allows space for some darker elements, but the emphasis is on finding light through that darkness. The film is distributed by faith-friendly Angel Studios (after being made independently and debuting at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival), and director Seth Worley is a professing Christian. But the film is not “faith-based” in the rigid sense of the genre. It is more focused on embodying Christian sentiment than proclaiming it.
Overall, Sketch is the type of film Hollywood needs to make more often, a refreshing antidote to the uninspired, hollow spectacle that has too frequently reached the silver screen in recent years. The film’s darker elements, mild profanity, and lack of easily digestible “faith-based” elements may not be to the tase of all audiences. As for me, I loved nearly everything about this movie, which has instantly become a frontrunner for my favorite film of the year.
For Consideration
Language: There is a fair amount of minor profanity for a PG-rated film, including “h—” (x4), “s—” (1-2), and “a—” (x2). The word “b—d” is used twice, although with its intended proper meaning rather than as a curse. Characters also call each other a “b-hole” (presumably meaning “butthole”) as a stand-in for a more profane insult.
Violence: The film’s violence is almost exclusively contained within the pages of the sketchbook (and in discussions of those images). Several violent drawings portray impaled stick figures and ample blood. A girl expresses some dark desires she has toward some boys she dislikes, including “tearing out their eyes” or pushing them out of an airplane with a parachute that is actually a poisonous snake (the confessions and dark sketches are typically played for humor rather than in a grim manner).
Sexuality: A young boy with long hair ends up with a pink backpack (although I believe he is borrowing it from a girl), but there doesn’t seem to be any deeper implications.
Other: The catalyst for the story involves a magic lake that has the power to heal and bring things to life. The source of the lake’s power is never explained or explored, but it is hinted that it may have some connection to the children’s deceased mother (it is a location that they associate with her). Thus, it seems to be symbolic or metaphorical power rather than real-world spirituality or magic.
Engage The Film
Light and Dark
Sketch paints a powerful picture of the grieving process through the eyes of a child’s imagination. Like Pixar’s Inside Out, the film explores the importance of being honest about feeling sadness and despair rather than masking those negative emotions with superficial joy.
The loss of their wife/mother prior to the start of the film has left the family shaken. The father has a mantra, “You can’t control your inbox, but you can control your outbox.” While the family members cannot control the emotions they feel inside, they can choose how they express them. For Amber, her sketchbook—which is filled with an array of dark and violent creations—acts as an extension of those deep emotions, an external metaphor for her internal pain. The driving question of the story is not simply whether she is wrong to sketch such shockingly dark images but whether she is wrong to feel such emotions at all.
Near the end of the film, Amber’s brother encourages her by saying something along the lines of, “You’re not an evil person just because you drew some evil pictures.” In perhaps the clearest encapsulation of the film’s message, the father ultimately realizes, “Amber was the only one doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Not running from the pain. Not covering it up. But feeling it. I let you down. I never gave you time to hurt.”
Sketch is a reminder—for young and old viewers alike—that it is natural to feel pain and sorrow. As the Bible conveys, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3). Christians should not dwell in the darkness. But sometimes we must first confront that darkness before we can find the light. Sometimes to heal, we must first grieve what we have lost. Sometimes to feel true joy, we must also experience deep sorrow.
