SAINT JUDY
A gripping legal drama with moral courage, harsh language, and worldview concerns.
Should You Watch It?
SAINT JUDY is a highly entertaining legal drama with appealing performances, a gripping true story, and morally uplifting elements. Judy Wood puts her clients before her paycheck and fights for an Afghan teacher who has suffered persecution and detention. The film makes a strong case that one person can stand up for what is right and advocate for people without a voice.
The cost is substantial. The story mentions beatings and rapes, though the film avoids showing the physical and sexual abuse. It also contains brief but gratuitous foul language, including three “f” words and two strong Jesus profanities. Its humanist, anti-religious, and politically correct approach creates additional worldview concerns.
If you are a discerning adult or mature teenager who can handle those concerns, this is worth seeing. For children and young teens, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESJudy Wood, a divorced trial lawyer, moves from New Mexico to Los Angeles so her ex-husband can share custody of their son. Starting a new career as an immigration lawyer, she takes the case of Asefa Ashwari, an Afghan teacher detained at a federal facility in Southern California.
Asefa was arrested by the Taliban after starting a school for girls and later escaped to the United States. Judy must fight to prove that Asefa belongs to a protected group and deserves asylum.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a highly entertaining, compelling film that succeeds both emotionally and dramatically. Michelle Monaghan gives an appealing performance as the real-life immigration lawyer, and the story of a strong, independent woman seeking justice for the oppressed is gripping.
Judy’s role as a mother adds depth to her tough exterior, while touching scenes between her and her son provide emotional warmth. Brief, concise flashbacks to Asefa’s life in Afghanistan add artistic value. The filmmakers’ decision not to depict the violence and sexual assault described in Asefa’s testimony makes those moments more powerful.
The Worldview
SAINT JUDY presents compassion, advocacy, and justice as important moral goods. Judy values her clients above money and believes that even one person can make a difference by standing up for what is right. The film also clearly portrays the Taliban’s oppression of women and condemns so-called “honor killings.”
Its overall approach, however, is strongly humanist, anti-religious, and politically correct. The movie removes “so help me God” from the trial oath, repeatedly uses “crimes against God” when discussing the Taliban, and suggests that political uses of religion are wrong. It presents the Taliban as practicing a “twisted version of Islam,” promotes the idea that the United States should accept all persecuted women around the world as legal immigrants, and includes a “No Muslim Ban” protest sign. The film does not address the service America’s immigration system should provide to legal American citizens or the Rule of Law, and it repeats the idea that “America is a nation of immigrants” rather than emphasizing America as a nation of citizens. A mural of the Virgin Mary also appears.
The film’s strongest moral longing is for justice for the oppressed. Scripture likewise calls us “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong humanist worldview with strong feminist elements and strong politically correct elements interspersed through the narrative seeming to promote a godless utopian worldview of people and of justice but mixed with some solid moral elements where female lawyer for immigrants legal and illegal fights for the “oppressed” and for “human rights” and represents a persecuted rape victim of a local Taliban government in Afghanistan, and it turns out the rape victim would be a possible “honor” murder victim by her father and brothers if she returned to her country, but lawyer falsely says the Taliban have a “twisted version of Islam” and tells appeals judges that the United States should accept all persecuted women around the world as legal immigrants and movie eliminates “so help me God” from trial oath and implies in a couple similar scenes that all political uses of religion are wrong, hence the movie’s humanist slant re religion, plus an image of a mural with the Virgin Mary
Foul Language
11 obscenities (including three “f” words) and two strong Jesus profanities
Violence
Women and girls hit with hard clods of dirt or clay, men drag distraught woman away and up some stairs to a jail cell, implied beatings and rapes, mentions of implied beatings and rapes afterwards
Sex
References to multiple rapes in jail of a woman and a man
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
Implied alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking, mention of using medication to sedate an unruly immigration detainee who’s said to be a danger to herself
Miscellaneous Immorality
Strong miscellaneous immorality such as lying, stealing, greed, racism, sexism, destruction of public property, child rebellion, and family in movie is divorced, and there’s some tension and disagreement between divorced couple in one scene.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Judy puts her clients before her paycheck. What does it look like to seek justice while treating people with compassion?
Micah 6:8 · Proverbs 31:8–9Asefa suffers because she stands against oppression. When is courage required to speak for someone who has no voice?
Proverbs 31:8–9 · Isaiah 1:17The film removes “so help me God” from the trial oath. What difference does it make to recognize God in public promises and the pursuit of justice?
Matthew 5:33–37 · Psalm 82:3–4Judy’s work affects her relationship with her son. How can someone serve others faithfully without neglecting family responsibilities?
1 Timothy 5:8 · Ephesians 6:4The Final Word
SAINT JUDY is gripping, well acted, and morally serious about advocacy for the oppressed. Its profanity, rape references, and humanist worldview make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults and mature teenagers, the answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For everyone else, consider these.
