Mountain Top

**_The LORD wants you to do pastoral work, not be a lawyer! (Or maybe not)_** A pastor living near the mountains in western North Carolina (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) is approached by the wife of a man in jail for serious embezzlement. The couple (Barry Corbin & Lin Shaye) insists that God wants him, a former lawyer, to be the defense attorney. But why take time away from his pastoral ministry to defend a criminal? Unless, the man’s not a thug at all. "Mountain Top” (2017) is a crime drama written & directed by a coproducer of “War Room” (2015). While not as powerful as that film, it’s at least on the level of "God's Not Dead" (2014) and "Do You Believe?" (2015), just not as evangelistic and with a scenic mountain town milieu. It’s refreshing to watch a crime drama with overt verbiage concerning God and faith, yet it’s thankfully done in such a natural fashion it comes across low-key and not overdone. Valerie Azlynn is on hand as the pastor’s wife. She looks like a tall version of Valerie Bertinelli when she was young. The film runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and was shot in Huntersville & Charlotte, North Carolina. GRADE: B