The Ultimate Gift – A Beautiful And Powerful Family Movie

Saturday evenings are somewhat sacred for our family.  Cris is home and the girls love to enjoy a family movie.  After a delicious and healthy dinner, I’ll make a batch of my decadent maple cinnamon popcorn, and we’ll settle comfortably in our living room to enjoy our movie.  With two teens and a 7 year old, finding something that appeals to everyone is not always easy.   Often I find that the best choices come from our personal library.

This past weekend as Sabrina was looking for just the right film, she found The Ultimate Gift, a beautiful movie that a friend had gifted us several years ago, and frankly, that I had completely forgotten about.

It was the perfect choice!

The Ultimate Gift, based on a novella by noted motivational speaker and author Jim Stovall, is a beautiful and powerful story of love and personal growth.

When billionaire Red Stevens (James Garner) realizes that his life is coming to an end, he wants to leave his grandson Jason (Drew Fuller) with a gift far more valuable than any material wealth could ever be.  Jason is a trust fund baby who has no concept of the real value of money or of much else really.

Jason is surrounded by greedy aunts and uncles who, though they have all receive considerable fortunes from Red, are far from satisfied and determined to find out who gets the bulk of the estate. Jason, just as money hungry as they are, embarks on a journey through which he is to earn a series of gifts that will all lead to ‘The Ultimate Gift”, the nature of which remains a complete mystery.  In order to receive these gifts Jason must fulfill a series of tasks presented to him through pre-recorded video messages from his grandfather Red.  Along his journey Jason meets young Emily who will have the most profound effect on his life.

This is a touching and powerful movie with stunning cinematography which resonates with a sincere message of hope, love and personal transformation. The characters are beautifully portrayed by the star studded cast.  In this day and age where so much emphasis is placed on material things it is a movie well worth sharing with your little ones.

Although the movie is rated PG13 I felt it was appropriate for my 7 year old Sabrina as I had seen it previously and did not feel there was any objectionable content — no sex, violence or crude language. I suspect the rating is given because of the subject matter. Young Emily, beautifully played by Abigail Breslin, suffers from Leukemia.  It is a tough illness to share with a seven year old but I don’t believe in sheltering my girls from difficult life topics such as this.  Sabrina had endless questions about it and I loved answering every single one of them.  I also shared my personal story with leukemia with my girls.

When I was 16, one of my good friends, Vincent, had 6 siblings.  His youngest sister who was 13 at the time, was in my younger brother class. She became very sick with leukemia and spent the better part of a year in the hospital.  Luckily for her, one of her sisters, Nathalie, who was in my sister’s class was a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant.  The transplant was a success and the leukemia went into remission.  It was a lot to share with Sabrina but it showed that cancer can have a happy ending.

If you have not yet seen “The Ultimate Gift” I strongly recommend that you do.  It’s a beautiful addition to any family’s movie collection.