The Preacher's Wife has a special place in my heart, but not for any reasons you might think. When I worked as a projectionist, I had to move a 35mm print of it a couple blocks from one theater to another, and had a mishap that kept me there til about 3 AM. I don't want that story to tie up this whole review, but if anyone cares to hear more about it just let me know and I'll be glad to elaborate it in the reviews forum. Anyways, this was my main reason for revisiting and reviewing this title which has now been released on Blu-Ray by Touchstone Entertainment.

The Preacher's Wife, directed by Penny Marshall and released during the 1996 holiday season, is a Capraesque Christmas movie about a much-needed miracle, based on 1947's The Bishop's Wife. Courtney B. Vance plays Reverend Henry Biggs, who is starting to get burned out with his work, and his wife Julia, played by the late Whitney Houston, is feeling like that fire in their marriage is losing its flame. After resorting to borrowing an old sermon from his father-in-law, the prior preacher, for the day's service and being criticized for it, Henry returns home and tells God "I sure could use a little help", and a second later an angel named Dudley (played by Denzel Washington with the same character name as The Bishop's Wife's character) lands in his front yard.

Dudley doesn't hide his identity from Henry, but Henry doesn't quite believe him. There's nothing "magical" about his appearance (he appears as an ordinary man) so he can be seen by everyone else too, but to them he says he's only a temporary assistant. He quickly befriends Henry's wife and their son Jeremiah (played by Justin Pierre Edmund), who also narrates the movie from his perspective. Julia and Jeremiah are charmed by his friendliness, but Henry gets annoyed thinking he's trying to steal their attention from him. However he soon realizes how to get his job and his family's relationship back in order with Dudley's help.

The Preacher's Wife has a fine supporting cast, including Gregory Hines as a sleazy businessman who wants to redevelop the neighborhood and thus rob it of its personality, and a brief appearance by Lionel Richie as a local musician. Whitney's mother Cissy Houston (a legendary gospel singer in her own right who also had a few disco hits in the 70s) also has a bit part in the film.

Although I'm not at all religious, I've always found The Preacher's Wife to be a nice and uplifting film. Certainly parts of it are a bit clichéd, but its intentions are pure and inoffensive, and you can't really argue with that. (Some have criticized it for being inferior to The Bishop's Wife, but not having seen that I can only judge it on its own merits.) While not a musical, there are a couple performances by the church choir (again, I'm not religious but I do like the harmonic sound of gospel singing) as well as a song performed by children for their Christmas play and Whitney Houston signing "I Believe in You and Me" at a local jazz club. What I appreciate about these parts is that the songs aren't cut short, they're allowed to be performed in their entirety without worrying about slowing down the film or not.

The Preacher's Wife is presented on Blu-Ray in its proper 1.85 aspect ratio, encoded in AVC format at 1080p. It looks just like the 35mm print I projected in its initial run, unspoiled by any unnecessary sharpening or digital clean-up. Many scenes have intentional film grain, which is left untouched as it should be. Just for fun I also put on my laserdisc of the movie, and it goes without saying that the Blu-Ray picture is a great improvement over that- I noticed several details I had forgotten about since its theatrical run. The disc is dual-layer and I noticed no compression artifacts.

English subtitles done closed-caption style (but a different transcription than the captions on the laserdisc) are included as well as Spanish subtitles. The movie is chaptered differently than the laserdisc, with 22 chapters instead of 17.