A father’s journey to forgiveness in ‘The Shack’

From left to right: Nan Phillips (Radha Mitchell), Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington), Missy Phillips (Emelie Eve), Josh Phillips (Gage Munroe) and Kate Phillips (Megan Charpentier) in THE SHACK.

From all appearances, Mackenzie Phillips (Sam Worthington) seems to have a good life; three great kids, a beautiful wife, lovely home — nothing seems amiss.  But when Mack takes the kids for an overnight camping trip, what starts out as a fun getaway soon turns into a parent’s most horrifying nightmare — his youngest daughter, Missy, is abducted from their campsite and her body is never recovered.

As Mack struggles to make sense of such enormous tragedy, he descends into a “great sadness” where his life starts to unravel and all the ghosts that he thought he had buried long ago resurface and push him to the edge of a precipice. It is at this time, at his darkest hour, that Mack receives a mysterious note in his mailbox with an invitation from God to meet at the shack—the place where Missy’s bloody dress was found. In a desperate attempt to find closure and answers to his daughter’s murder, Mack heads back into the Oregon wilderness to confront the killer, or God… or both.

Jesus (Aviv Alush, far left), Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington, center left), Papa (Octavia Spencer, center right) and Sarayu (Sumire Matsubara, far right) in THE SHACK.

The step to making this a bonafide Hollywood film was finding the perfect cast who understood and appreciated the material. They would also have to be willing to open themselves up to explore the profound and moving messages. That took form in an outstanding cast that includes Worthington, Academy Award® winner Octavia Spencer (Best Supporting Actress, The Help, 2011), Radha Mitchell, Alice Braga, and Grammy-Award® winner Tim McGraw along with newcomers to the big screen Sumire Matsubara and Avraham Aviv Alush.

It is this examination into some of life’s biggest and most enigmatic questions that immediately attracted Worthington to play the role of Mack. “I had a visceral reaction to the script and that compelled me to read the book,” says Worthington. “I emotionally connected with this story, especially as I have a young family and I identified with what would happen if my family, my child was taken away from me. I wanted to use Mack to explore these themes of life and death and who’s to blame for breaking your heart. Who’s to blame for taking away your faith? These are really big questions that I think everyone asks at some time in your life.”

“The most exciting thing I’ve heard from people that have dug into this as a film is that ‘it made me want to be a better person.’ This story gives people hope and I love that!” shares producer Brad Cummings.  Tim McGraw notes, “We forget what we’re here for and what our purpose is, it’s to love one another, be supportive of one another and find ways to lift each other up.”

Worthington concludes, “We all lose a relationship or a loved one. If you look at it in a very simple way, the film offers a beautiful message that if you forgive the tragedy that hits your life, you can actually get through it. It may be extremely painful and take a long time, but forgiveness releases you, it sets you free.”

The Shack opens March 1 in cinemas from Pioneer Films.