A former atheist's journey to proving the authenticity of the Christian faith is the focus of the upcoming movie "The Case for Christ," which was released in theaters during the weekend.

The movie directed by Jonathan Gunn is based on the best-selling book by award-winning investigative journalist Lee Strobel and features Mike Vogel as Strobel and Erika Christensen as his wife, Leslie.

The movie chronicles Strobel's "quest to debunk the claims of Christianity in order to save his crumbling marriage." His wife's newfound faith in Jesus Christ did not sit well with the author and has become one of the main contentions at home.

In an interview with CBN, Strobel admitted one of the main things that went through his mind through his two-year investigative work. "There were so many reasons why I did not there to be a God, because I did not want to be held accountable."

In fact, he considered divorce when he found out his wife became a Christian.

"I didn't want to be married to a Christian. I was an atheist and I thought Christianity was based on wishful thinking, on legends, on mythology, on make believe... and I didn't want her to turn into some kind of holy roller," he admitted.

While the movie talked a lot about finding faith, director Gunn revealed, "The love story that's at the heart of this story is what really drew me to it."

During an advanced screening event at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention, Pure Flix CEO encouraged the viewers to share the film and invited more people to watch it on opening day.

"It's so important for these movies if they're going to expand and get bigger and grow throughout the U.S. and Canada and other parts of the world, it's all about opening weekend," the CEO said.

Meanwhile, the movie has received mixed reviews.

According to Variety, the film seemed sentimental and oversimplified as a detective story but "The Case for Christ" may still rouse some emotions even among nonbelievers. On the other hand, The Hollywood Reporter opined that the film is unlikely to recruit new converts as the evidences presented in the film are rather vague.