Mitch Albom (Bradley Whitford) has a pretty great life. He lives in Detroit and is happily married, he’s an award-winning sportswriter, a must-read newspaper columnist, a screenwriter, a radio and television broadcaster. Then two men come into his life, and he realizes something’s missing. Rabbi Albert Lewis (Martin Landau) presides over a thriving synagogue in a comfortable New Jersey suburb, and pastor Henry Covington (Laurence Fishburne), a recovering drug user and dealer, preaches to the poor and homeless in a crumbling Detroit inner-city church. Moving between their worlds – Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and privileged – Albom witnesses first-hand how these two very different men not only live life, but celebrate it. What else do these two have in common? They believe there’s divine spark in all of us – and that a single person can make a big difference in others’ lives, as long as they have a little faith.
The movie was filmed in Detroit.
For the full article, see Mitch Albom, “This film has the story — and the spirit”, Detroit Free Press, November 27, 2011.