"Are you there, God? It's me, Neale."

"Conversations With God" is the dramatization of Neale Donald Walsch's 1996 bestseller of the same name, a chronicle of the author's journey from homelessness to a spiritual awakening that resulted in -- ain't life grand -- a million-dollar book contract.

Clearly, millions of people have found Walsch's New Age message of self-forgiveness and unconditional love a rewarding one. Whether millions more will make this docu-drama a cult favorite on par with the lame "What the [Bleep] Do We Know!?" is questionable. Henry Czerny portrays Walsch in a story that begins with the author on a fancy book tour and flashes back to the pivotal moments of his life: a debilitating injury, unemployment, a fall into destitution.

There's nothing particularly objectionable about the film (other than its inert movie-of-the-week structure) until Walsch takes his God-spokesman role too far in the final act. Suddenly, all the platitudes that have seemed like harmless bromides take on the sinister tone of a guy selling snake oil.

"Conversations With God" was directed by Stephen Simon, who produced 1998's "What Dreams May Come." If Simon's desire to feed the better angels of our nature is admirable, it would be nice if he could do it with better movies.

-- Ann Hornaday (Oct. 27, 2006)

Contains thematic elements, some profanity and a brief accident.