BUCKLEY’S CHANCE
A sensitive family drama better saved for home viewing.
Should You Watch It?
Buckley’s Chance has a worthwhile heart. It stresses family ties and follows a dysfunctional family trying to make peace with the past. Its redemptive content includes characters asking for forgiveness and forgiving one another.
The film is also slow-moving and lackluster. Too much attention goes to backstory, where little happens, and the pace suffers. Guns, kidnapping, violence, peril, and foul language add concerns for families with younger children.
Because the movie has some moral value but limited entertainment quality, watch it at home, where you can guide the experience and stop if needed.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAfter his father’s death, 13-year-old Ridley moves with his mother from New York City to western Australia to live with his estranged grandfather. The grandfather does not welcome them, and Ridley struggles to find his place.
When Ridley runs away, he is kidnapped and becomes lost in the dangerous outback after escaping. A wild dog named Buckley helps protect and guide him as his family searches for him.
Is It Any Good?
Two stars means this is a sensitive drama with a worthwhile message but weak execution. The story focuses on a dysfunctional family trying to connect and make peace with its past, and the forgiveness theme gives the film some emotional purpose.
But the movie is slow-moving and lackluster. It spends too much time on backstory, where nothing really happens, which slows the pace considerably. The family material is sincere, but the film does not turn that sincerity into consistently compelling drama.
The Worldview
The film’s moral worldview stresses the importance of family and family ties. It also includes redemptive elements: one main character asks for forgiveness, and other main characters forgive. The dysfunctional family is ultimately rebuked or reconciled.
These themes align with a biblical emphasis on forgiveness and restored relationships. The source review does not identify a specific worldview element that the film removes or distorts. Its central moral emphasis is that families should face their broken pasts and seek peace with one another.
Scripture calls believers to forgive as they have been forgiven: “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:13).
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 moral worldview stresses the importance of family and family ties, plus some redemptive elements where one main character asks for forgiveness, and other main characters forgive
Foul Language
12 obscenities (including a few uses of “bloody,” “h” words, the Australian/British word for a**, and one use of “bastard”), but no profanities
Violence
Strong and light violence and peril includes characters held at gunpoint, shots fired at animals, boy kidnapped, thugs threaten to set a place on fire, boy who never used a gun given a shotgun and told to shoot an animal, a boy is dragged over falls by a heavy river current, snakes encountered, and boy hits his head on a rock and falls unconscious
Sex
No sex
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
Thugs appear to be drunk
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
(MM, M) Kidnapping, bullying, rebellion, the main family is dysfunctional, but all is ultimately rebuked or reconciled.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Ridley’s family carries grief and bitterness from the past. What helps a family begin to reconnect after loss?
Psalm 34:18 · Romans 12:18The film includes characters asking for and receiving forgiveness. Why can forgiveness be difficult, and what does Christian forgiveness look like?
Matthew 6:14–15 · Colossians 3:13The story shows how family conflict affects children. How can adults take responsibility for the wounds their conflict creates?
Ephesians 6:4 · James 1:19–20The outback places Ridley in danger after he runs away. How should families balance independence with wise protection?
Proverbs 1:5 · Proverbs 22:3The Final Word
Buckley’s Chance has a good message about family and forgiveness, but its slow pace and content concerns make it a better home viewing choice. Watch with older children only if you are prepared to guide the conversation. WAIT FOR HOME. For other options, see.
