YMMV / Courageous

• Moment of Awesome: When Javier chooses to say that he will not fudge numbers for his boss. He struggled mightily because he fully expected to lose a job he desperately needed to provide for his family but in the end, he decided to be a man of honor that his children could respect...and is promoted for his honesty.
• Narm:
  • The dramatic dialogue between Nathan and David on why they need to atone for their sins and be better fathers takes quite a turn when Nathan uses a court-to-Heaven allegory, comparing David being a Disappeared Dad to somebody murdering David's mother. The severity of the comparison and the all around Mood Whiplash is too ridiculous for the drama to truly hit hard.
    Nathan: Who's the person you're closest to?
    David: Probably my mom.
    Nathan: Okay. Suppose she was brutally attacked and murdered in a parking lot. The guy was caught and put on trial. But he says, "Hey, judge, I committed this crime, but I've done a lot of good in my life." If the judge let him go free, would you say he was a good or a bad judge?
    David: A bad one.
  • Nathan takes his daughter Jade on an upscale dinner date, and gives her a ring that is meant to symbolize his commitment to being the best dad he can be... up to and including "approving any young man who desires to have more than a friendship with you," because "One day I'll give you away to another man, and I want that man to love God more than anything. This leads to Nathan giving her a promise ring, and the setup has so many (hopefully) unintentional parallels to a marriage proposal that it feels like an incestuous parody of overprotective fatherhood, but it's played totally straight. Even stranger is that Jade is completely honored by this and stares lovingly at her ring in the next scene in a way that seems comically opposed to a typical teen girl's reaction to such an event.
  Nathan: Jade, will you give me your left hand, please?
  Jade: Daddy, is this real?
  Nathan: Yes, it is. This is meant to be worn until it's replaced by your wedding ring.
• No Yay: Nathan giving his daughter a promise ring is framed in a way that makes it look like Nathan is proposing marriage to his daughter.
• Tear Jerker: When Adam Mitchell's daughter dies. If you're a Christian, this scene might hit even harder since after Shane explains to Adam exactly what happened, Adam says "Oh God help my daughter!"... and then she STILL dies. This leads into a series of scenes of the family grieving and then into a conversation between Adam and his wife where she tearfully talks about how "I'm in a black hole and I don't know where the way out is" (paraphrased). Many Christians can relate to unanswered prayers causing horrible pain.

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