You may not believe in God, but you’ll probably be comforted in David Strathairn purporting to be God in the fascinating philosophical fable, INTERVIEW WITH GOD.

Fresh from covering the war in Afghanistan, American journalist Paul Asher, played by Brenton Thwaites, is back home dealing with the aftermath of his experience, chronicled in his journal Christians in Combat, a moribund marriage and a severe rip in the fabric of his faith in God.

Seemingly out of the blue, in answer to his prayers, the reporter is offered an interview with a man purporting to be God.

Over three days, in three diverse locations, Paul interrogates God, and vice versa about a myriad of subjects from the mundane to the mysterious, theoretical and theological, physical and philosophical.

The concept of free will and the conciliation of free will with God’s will is argued and discussed, about making choices and living by those choices, dealing with consequences.

Strathairn is a suave God, without being unctuous, sympathetic and wise, with no sense of smugness or superiority. He’s inquisitive without being an inquisitor, guiding the interview in mysterious ways, motivating rather than manipulating, provocative in his musings – salvation as a product, Satan as overrated, and the Sinai tablets overstated.

Yes bad things happen to good people, but if people look to each other, man made bad things would diminish, and compassion and empathy could provide succour and comfort against loss and pain.

Strathairn’s God is very much the Judaic-Christian confection, but a progressive version, without the jealous, judgemental old cranky of the Old Testament.

He’s as secular as he can be, and as non sectarian, more a psychoanalyst than a spiritual guru.