I Can Only Imagine

I Can Only Imagine 2 Review

Brighton Nelson

18 Mar 2026 — 7 min read

Like in one of my recent reviews, I tried to get the first film from the library before watching this one, but unfortunately, that didn't work out, even though I was first in line... with my luck, it will likely be available for me to pick up tomorrow. Anyway, as a life-long fan of MercyMe, with the titular "I Can Only Imagine", "Move", "Oh Death", some of my favorites—I was pretty dang excited to check out these two films. While I'll be watching and reviewing the first film as soon as possible, I thankfully knew enough about its events that it was completely easy to follow. Anyway, enough preamble: I'm excited and honored to present to you today's Reel Ranker review.

I Can Only Imagine 2: Trailer, Cast, Release Date, and Everything We Know So Far - Hope Nation — Never expected that I Can Only Imagine would get a sequel, but I really liked that.

As always, I will first discuss the bad, then move to the good, saving the best for last. Honestly, there isn't anything outright bad about this movie, but there are certainly a couple of mediocre elements that were a tad difficult to manage. My biggest dislike with this film has to be its portrayal of Bart Millard. I felt both his acting and his character's writing tried to make him likable and relatable, but he ends up being the most one-note and uninteresting character in his own film. The film consistently shows that he's trying his best to be a good father and is kind of failing because of his own upbringing, yet he feels like all he's trying to be is a phone reminder to take insulin shots.

While the film addresses this late into its runtime, it feels so unrealistic and unbelievable, even for a helicopter parent. A true helicopter parent would at least pester him about other things, such as not playing the guitar so he can be a lawyer, a doctor, and an astronaut at the same time. Horrendous jokes aside, John Michael Finley's performance simply fell entirely flat for me. Not saying he's a bad actor, I feel it was mostly the script painting him so one-note, but, then again, he also wasn't doing much to try and move past the script and have a special performance, so it was all-around just a little bit of a dud, and probably not an accurate portrayal of Bart Millard's parenting, even in the context of a 110 minute feature.

Struggling to find interesting pictures for this one haha.

However, considering the main character was portrayed poorly (in my opinion), it barely took me out of the movie, surprisingly enough, because everything else was executed drastically better. It was practically perfectly in line with what I was expecting and wanting from a film like this. While the cinematography, set pieces, and other unique elements of the film medium lack innovation, so do most faith-based films. Yet a film doesn't always need innovation to tell a satisfying story.

The movie's biggest strengths are its supporting performances and its ability to draw out emotion from simple scenes. Even though I'm not a big fan of Bart Millard's portrayal, which I don't think I can attribute to John Michael Finley, I loved the performances of all the other characters. I really enjoyed Sammy Dell's performance of Sam in this film. He brought a subdued, warm, and gentle tone to the character that was extremely refreshing in a world full of Hollywood's obsession with marking lots of young men as comically evil or making teenagers so stereotypically rebellious in every film, and ridding their portrayals of any nuance and beauty that comes through the good things teens contribute to society. Sophie Skelton as Shannon and Arielle Kebbel as Hilary also both did a great job in the little screentime they got! I would've loved to see more of them, since they are so crucial to their husbands' livelihoods and happiness, and aren't just trophies, but when your main characters are on tour the whole film, there's very little that can be done. Trace Adkins did a great job as Brick, adding humor and ruggedness to the film as a jaded, ruffian band manager. In contrast, Dennis Quaid did a fantastic job playing a dad who feels nuanced, both brokenly unlikable and likably relatable at once, the crucial element missing from the film's lead performance.

I swear Milo can pull off any hair style on Planet Earth at this point.

However, the easiest standout of the film is Milo Ventimiglia as Tim Timmons. The charisma, charm, and line delivery of his portrayal make him steal every scene, to the point that I almost wish he were the main character instead. He already had the second biggest role, but his performance was simply that awesome that I wouldn't have minded if it were even bigger. His acting makes many moments of the film land very profoundly, when I honestly feel as if the film's impact would've been rather small without him. His dialogue, jokes, and everything else all come together to make Milo my current frontrunner for supporting actor this year thus far, which was the last thing I was expecting from this film, but his joy as Tim Timmons is just that joyfully contagious. Seriously, I want to listen to all of his songs now just so I can call myself a true, multi-faceted Tim Timmons fan. Anyway, not to spoil the movie too much, but there are many moments of payoff in the third act that really pull together the powerful themes of Tim and Sam's stories. Let's just say, there's a scene about blood brothers and a scene about sharpied X's, both of which got me tearing up, even with how simple they were. There are so many scenes in this film where Tim Timmons' story hits like a truck.

The Reel Ranker Verdict

Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 75%
Letter Score: A-
Star Ranking: 4 out of 5

While I Can Only Imagine 2 does a rather weak job of portraying its main character, Bart Millard, the emotional performances and the charmingly profound payoff are done so well that I can't help but recommend this film, particularly to fellow MercyMe fans or to people who generally enjoy more faith-based filmmaking.

Interested in checking out some other awesome films for the whole family? Check them out below!