Princess Cut 3: Beauty from Ashes
Produced by Paul and Sheila Munger.
The Film Description
Love looks deeper.
Life is tough for overworked single mother Tessa Rigsby. After she intervenes in a neighbors domestic fight, rookie cop Mike Coleman handles the situation. Soon after, Mike and Tessa develop an unexpected relationship of love and support, but like much of her past, Tessa's circumstances put her happiness at risk. Will she finally find the new life for herself and her son that she's been seeking?
I like how Paul and Sheila Munger have used the sequels of Princess Cut to focus on different relationship dynamics. The first Princess Cut focused mainly on Grace and how she struggled in the process of finding a godly husband. Princess Cut 2: Hearts on Fire, focused on the marriage of older Grace’s brother. A common thread has been the troubled life of Grace’s “happy go lucky” best friend, Tessa, whose seemingly happy demeanour hides a troubled past. Tessa does not believe in the Lord and Princess Cut 1 and 2 show her scoffing at Grace and her family’s faith in God.
In Princess Cut 3, we see the outcome of living for the world and in the world, not only in Tessa’s life, but in the lives of some of the people she has ties with.
Mike, the brave policeman she meets through undesirable circumstances, bring a familiar yet new concept into Tessa’s life and he makes no secret about it being by God’s grace.
What I like most about Princess Cut 3, is that it shows the cleansing process we can go through, by God’s grace. When Mike and Tessa meet, Mike asks her, “What’s your story?” and Tessa answers, “How much time do you have?”
We all have a story and Princess Cut 3 shows how worldly love does not allow us to pursue God, through Jesus Christ, because sin requires we keep our story - our baggage. That weight weighs down and destroys relationships, and marriages are the first in line.
Princess Cut 3 shows the hardship of being on different pages spiritually. It also shows how hard it is when we don’t understand God’s plan, but yet choose to trust him anyway.
For me, Princess Cut 3 has successfully portrayed, through it’s three films, how a Christian marriage mirrors Jesus Christ’s love for His church.
Mike says some things in the film that catches my attention. For example:
His will is to protect Tessa, primarily through his faith. So we see the model of a strong spiritual leader.
He says, “God works for the good if you let him.” This reminds me of the verse from Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Mike also says, God cares if I do the right thing, even if no one else does.
He says, “God put us in each other’s lives for a reason.” This reminds me of the verse from Isaiah 55:11, which I actually got as a daily devotion the morning of my wedding: It says, So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
We see how faith does not protect us from hardships, but our trust in God means that we will not be consumed. Marriage is a battleground and anyone who accepts the blessing of a covenant marriage, through God, should expect life to become much harder, because Satan hates marriage. Why? Because marriage mirrors Christ’s relationship to the church. Ephesians 5:22-33 says:
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
The battlefield of marriage becomes unbearable when we attempt to fight with our own strength - as is the case for any other aspect of the spiritual battle we are in. Princess Cut 3 shows how emotions can run high and out of control in desperate situations, when we turn away from God’s grace. It also depicts how wrong things can go when we approach marriage through a worldly view, forgetting that God made marriage and we therefore require His grace to set the stage for the blessing of the marriage covenant. This is seen in a relationship dynamic involving Grace’s younger brother.
However, when we rely on God’s strength, through Jesus Christ, the endless challenges and pain and suffering of this world reminds us of the promises that have been made and what is to come. We are reminded, as it says in Romans 8:31-38
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Princess Cut 3 glorifies God through the portrayal of the sacred covenant of marriage, modelling the role of the man as the spiritual leader in the relationship.
It gives glory and honour and thanks to God by showing that we need the Lord in order to get through this spiritual battle we are in, due to sin.
It encouraged my faith, as have the other Princess Cut films and while the first Princess Cut film had smoother acting dynamics, the message remains the same through them all - faith, love and hope in God, through Jesus Christ.
So would I change anything about the film?
There was some Hollywood gloss that came in the form of a waitress/student at the local restaurant that was an aspiring singer. There are some key scenes where more focus was put on this character instead of key moments between other characters, for example, the end scene between Mike and Tessa. So I would have changed that focus and had more details involving Mike and Tessa.
SUMMARY
Princess 3’s title, Beauty From Ashes is right on point. It shows how God can take us who are unworthy, who feel unworthy and are reminded by the world of our unworthiness and wash us clean, through our faith in Jesus Christ, who sacrificed everything to restore our relationship with God, our heavenly Father.
Thank you for reading this review. Until next time - peace be with you.
Source for film and thumbnail: www.christiancinema.com.
NB! The links I reference for my films is the source I used, but it is not an endorsement of the entire film streaming company. I am sure this particular film can be found on various digital streaming companies.
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