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Parents' Guide to

Born to Win

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Faith-based story addresses abuse, alcoholism, disabilities.

Movie NR 2014 105 minutes
Born to Win Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 1 parent review

Roscoe1964
Roscoe1964 Adult
March 17, 2019
age 16+

Confronting

A good and confronting truth. Once you are committed to God it does not mean you won't get hurt or that bad things won't happen. This doesn't mean that God has abandoned you.
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In BORN TO WIN, Leon Terblanche (Gregory Kriek) is abandoned by selfish and abusive parents when he is 6. He is taken in by his father's black housekeeper and she raises him as her own until white police take him away because of racist laws. As he internalizes his stepfather's pronouncements that he's worthless, he becomes hardened and rejects his previous belief in God. He marries Elmarie (Leone Peinaar ) and the action jumps to 14 years later when he spends more time drinking than he spends with his wife and daughter Brigitte (Marie Cronje). Although he works at a school for the disabled and treats his students with compassion, his heart closes to his wife and he labors under a delusional blindness to his role in the failure of their marriage. When his wife and daughter bring him back to church, he breaks down and renews his faith in Jesus. He uses his faith and words of the Bible to comfort his suicidal disabled students but loses faith again when a traffic accident puts his daughter into a coma. Seeming miracles occur after he starts to pray again. A boy with a terrible disease dies a surprisingly peaceful death, God speaks to Leon, and Leon goes on to become a pastor to a small congregation.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

This film addresses the age-old question: Why does God make bad things happen to good people? Naysayers rely on this to support the notion that God doesn't exist, or that God is cruel or that believers are fools. The faithful may find the answers offered here comforting: God never leaves us. Our trials are given to help us learn. But non-believers will find neither comfort nor satisfying explanations here. Henry, a young student who is paralyzed from the shoulders down, asks his teacher, Leon, to help him kill himself. Henry begs his teacher to leave the gate to the swimming pool open, but tearful Leon bucks Henry up with a story about the beautiful and strong arms and legs Henry will have after he dies and goes to heaven.

Logic lovers will be infuriated, but Born to Win isn't designed for anyone but the faithful. From that point of view, although Gregory Kriek seems far too old to play a college student, his performance as Leon is vivid and animated, and tears will be jerked from anyone with a pulse during scenes when he confronts a quadriplegic lamenting the limitations of his life and an amputee fearing no one will ever love her. The title of both the movie and the book it was based on suggests the metaphor that life is a competition that can, or should, be won. It's difficult to know what "winning" means here and it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the competition can also be "lost." The deciding factor seems to be faith. For those who choose another path, this movie seems to say that you're out of luck.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the domestic abuse that affected Leon's life in Born to Win. His mother seems to want to protect Leon from her abusive husband, yet she chooses the husband over her small child. Why do you think abused women sometimes return to their abusers?

  • This is a faith-based movie. Do you need to share these beliefs to enjoy it? Why or why not?

  • Leon drinks too much alcohol and his addiction threatens his relationships with his wife and daughter. How do you think his childhood experiences might be connected to the drinking?

Movie Details

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