We are the sum of our experiences

The "Ultimate Gift"  I loved it and have seen it several times.

The movie is 117 minutes long, in 2006 won the Heartland Film Festival's Crystal Heart Award and received the Dove Foundation's seal of approval. It is based on Jim Stovall's novel.

The old familiar faces work well with the new and upcoming ones. The lesson you come away with is that we are the sum of our experiences.

Jason (Drew Fuller) the main personage in the story is a super rich punk has no experiences and hence not much of a character. James Garner his grandfather aims to change that and gives him a series of experiences which as he states lead to an Ultimate Gift.

James Garner plays Red Stevens, Jason’s grandfather, at the reading of his will and leaves parts of his estate to his ungrateful family, but saves the last for the son of his favorite (deceased) son. He tells his grandson through his best friend and attorney (Bill Cobbs) that he is giving him a series of gifts which will terminate in the ultimate gift. His first stop is a ranch in Texas where he meets Gus played by Brian Dennehy, and there after a month gets his first gift.

 The time period of this film covers an entire year in Jason’s life. While a homeless bum in the quest of obtaining his 2nd gift he meets a little girl with attitude and she tells it like it is and becomes his friend, first on his part for convenience and then for real. From then on the lives of Jason and the girl and her mother become entwined till the end of the movie.

The gifts are not tangible as in an object, but lessons and experiences. I don’t want to tell too much about the movie and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I have.

It is a great family movie, with several heart warming scenes and if you are soft at heart will even make you cry a few times and there are plenty of scenes to make you smile. Everyone does a great job and are very convincing as their characters

Probably the only bad thing about it is that it isn’t long enough