Based on a true story, Father Stu follows part-time boxer, Stuart Long as he journeys to becoming a priest. The film sounded interesting, and with a pretty good cast on board, I was interested to see if this could be another rare example of a good faith-based movie (I Can Only Imagine is still the best one).
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Well, I’ll give it this, it’s better than most in the genre. The performances in Father Stu are good from everyone, you can tell that Mark Wahlberg is taking this role very seriously and does his most damn to not come off as just him playing himself. Sure it bothers Oscar-worthy, but I thought the cast was good overall. The message is preachy, but it’s still something that works for everyone regardless of your thoughts on religion.
The humor got me chuckling most of the time, even if Father Stu relies too much on actor’s reaction shots. Unfortunately, the drawbacks come from the inconsistent direction and writing. Sometimes the writing does the job of telling Stuart Long’s story and has some funny lines, but then you got your typical cliched “inspirational” dialogue when people talk like trailer lines, and some parts of the narrative felt unfinished while others dragged.
Direction-wise, it’s obvious this is a first-time director (I know we gotta start somewhere, but we have to learn from the flaws). Scenes will use slow-mo for no reason at all, the music choices were very jarring at times, and the film does a poor job displaying the passage of time with the characters. Mark Wahlberg is the only one that ages by the end of the film, everyone else looks no different at the conclusion from how they looked at the start. Also, establishing locations onscreen is important to help the audience know where the heck is film located currently, this film, does not do that.
Father Stu has good intentions and just barely scoots by with the rating I’m giving it thanks to the performances from everyone and for having some really good scenes that worked for me at least. But the inconsistency in the direction and writing really hold the film back from being something worth watching for anyone outside the audience that this is aiming towards. The film will definitely please the crowd that it’s aiming towards, but everyone else is probably best just watching I Can Only Imagine instead.
Review by Caleb Baral (@icebirdreviews)
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