Finding Faith

Finding-Faith
Finding Faith

(REVIEW) Say what you like about “Finding Faith,” at least its characters went through much hardship for a faith-themed movie. Unfortunately, though, it has potential but squanders it and falls prey to too many tropes of faith-themed films.

“American Pure Flix” is a veteran as well as a newcomer in the drama of faith-based movies. For quite some time, the organization “Pure Flix” has been producing faith-focused films like those of ‘God’s Not Dead’ and ‘Unplanned’ or ‘The Case for Christ.’ Over time, Pure Flix has seen itself associated with a specific brand of films that deal with faith, and family and tend to be lower, though not exclusively terrible quality. However, the streaming aspect of the company combined with another company called Great American Media, rebranding themselves as Great American Pure Flix.

Bill Abbott, the new CEO of Great American Pure Flix, provided an interview for Religion Unplugged where they were quite clear that their priority is to acquire a substantial number of providers to produce great quality content. The total focus for them is expanding their audience with appealing content to match the wider audience of ‘Pure Flix.’ (Something that seems to be working. I included one of their originals in my top 10 last year along with faith focus building films).

“The element that is under the radar I think is how many people really do want to work in this space, and who are willing to put their names out there in association with this product,” Abbott explained.

“Once they grow older, and start having children or feel a strong sense of social responsibility, the dynamic changes from these youth who are motivated towards establishing a career and making a name for themselves.”

In the above outline, it is clear that “Finding Faith” is one of the Great American Pure Flix movies under this vision. And while the film clearly has its heart in the right place, and has some good qualities, it ultimately has most of the same problems as the faith-based film where the Great American Pure Flix is trying to make a point.

The cast is headlined by Ashley Bratcher as Victoria, a married Christian advice columnist who goes by the pen name Faith and slowly begins to abandon her religion through life events stemming from the fissure of her marriage. Somehow, she gets a call that her mother is hospitalized and decides to return to knee herself whether there’s hope for her relationship with God and her marriage.

In summation, the idea for this movie is a great one.

A Christian advice columnist who tries to uplift others with their faith while struggling to do so with self has plenty of dramatic irony (giving advice she can’t take herself or making other people laugh when she’s sad) which is very understandable for a Christian.

Every such Christian whom I’ve known and whose life has been to help others has faced faith crisis and sorrow in the process themselves which sometimes brings out their hypocritical nature. This experience is in a clumsy way what the Mother Teresa movie last year was trying to do as well, and it is a worthy one for faith-based projects to be pursuing.

Ashley Bratcher, who plays the role of film lead, is very familiar with the concept, being more popular among Christian audiences for her star role in the pro-life movie “Unplanned.” She Vorreiter assumes that’s what the firm encompasses and its essence, the columnist’s character, and her emotional adventures can also be attributed to that.

“She is dealing with a lot of issues, trying to help people in their faith, having her family and marriage problems, mother’s death, having a miscarriage, all sorts of bad things and trying to work out the reasons for them,” she continued. “I have the impression that such a question I think all of us have posed at least once.

And here she is asking all these questions and at the same time trying to help other people with their faith. So this twist in the movie makes it all the more interesting. It is all about hope, redemption, faith, and marriage.

The movie does not shy away from making its characters go through pain or even flaws for that matter. This is also something Bratcher said she enjoyed very much.

“There’s been a lot of times in my own life where I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom and I’ve had those exact same questions,” she said. “This was the first movie I’d done in a couple of years, and when it came across my desk, I was drawn to it because I could relate. It was hard and difficult to commit to for the first two years because I wanted to handle sensitive subjects. These are not nice movies where everyone is happy. That’s not what life is like. I make films that show redemption whatever that may be. It just happens that way with Pure Flix and Great American I’ve worked there a lot. If you check my portfolio, I’m a bit on the edge compared to most of the ordinary Christian movies, for example.”

“I thoroughly believe that I’ve enjoyed this performance.”

The movie is often successful when “Finding Faith” exploits the grit that comes with life’s tragedies and the efforts to overcome them of its characters. It is gratifying when Faith and her husband feel like a real married couple with realistic problems just trying to work through them. There’s some of the best-frustrated banter of the movie in the marriage counseling session. The same way works when Faith and her father are portrayed like real fathers and daughters trying to resolve his shocking history of her divorce and his relationship with his wife.

It is easy to say that most of the real moments that were depicted in the film can be when the casting is right. John Schneider carries a certain ease that renders him absolutely convincing even when his words border on cheesiness. Such scenes have the lazy truth that some of his encounters, depicting the movie working, are reminiscent of a classic plot, “disenchanted city ladies go back to their hometown in search for their lost identity.”

Sadly, however, this film rests on its stereotypes much more frequently than its original aspects and is artificial much more than it is genuine.

The viewer hardly pays attention to Victoria’s writing in the advice column as she only appears briefly in the introduction’s montage, so there is no discernible difference between her life and her writing. And there are some gravitational unities that we might refer to as irony, but this is again Victoria’s own words, the reason why she is not writing anymore.

This time, it was not about eluding retribution, instead it was about eluding a potentially interesting sideline of the narrative and sticking to the cliches of this type of plot which suffices to say, has been showcased hundreds of times before: The scene where Victoria is having a stress-free {and highly irrelevant} conversation with her best friend who informs her that she has got a big break and that she needs to focus.

These kinds of discussions far too often seem and look fake. Clearly, Victoria does not feel the sort of cynicism in response to the eye-rolling clichés offered by the pastor, which a person in her situation ought to. When creating the description of her feelings, she tries to be literal, just like a scriptwriter would, where people speak in a much more careless manner. In their marriage disputes, just like in all movies, all the right issues conveniently pop up when the plot requires.

Though unfortunate, it is very apparent that this type of material is much needed in society because there is a clear lack of stories that depict Christian characters as going through struggles.

This is all the more relevant since as Bratcher said initiating dialogue with her non-Christian friends is one of the things she cherishes the most about faith-based films.

“Absolutely. Certainly explaining how I have friends that have all sorts of different beliefs that range across the spectrum,” Bratcher explained. “And being able to have conversations that are hard, like you said, people ask hard questions. And being able to have a real authentic answer can change people’s lives. And my goal is ultimately to lead all people to Christ, but not in an obnoxious, preachy manner. Instead, I prefer saying, Here’s what God has done in my life. Here’s what God has done in other people’s lives. Look at the Bible. The Bible is full of stories about people who were just a complete mess, and God transformed their lives and then used them. And I think it’s important for everyone to know that.”

In a number of ways, the film does seem like a return of sorts to the golden age of the faith-based film revolution.

Kingdom Storybook Company is a credible example of how cinematography, music, and editing are essential. I think that the company Great American Pure Flix will improve gradually. The movie “Finding Faith” clearly does not stand out for high production values among many modern faith-based films. And this is what one expects from Pure Flix.

Unfortunately, the production meets the expectations of the subscribers. For new audiences and potential subscribers, the movie is not a good enough reason to sign up for the platform now.

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