{"id":6735,"date":"2024-10-25T10:26:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6735"},"modified":"2024-10-25T10:26:21","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:26:21","slug":"i-still-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/i-still-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"I Still Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I Still Believe <\/strong>(2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: The Erwin Brothers (Jon and Andrew)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn and Madeline Carroll\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kristopher Kimlin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 13, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Gary Sinise, Shania Twain, Melissa Roxburgh, Nathan Parsons, Nicholas Bechtel, Reuben Dodd, Cameron Arnett, Tanya Christiansen, Abigail Cowen.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10.4M (US)\/$16.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0If I was asked to write a blurb for I Still Believe<\/strong>, I\u2019d say it\u2019s Love Story for the after-church crowd. It\u2019s as apt a description as any for this incredibly corny Christian melodrama from the guys that brought you I Can Only Imagine, the Erwin Brothers. \u00a0For their second musical biopic, they\u2019ve chosen to tell the real-life Love Story of singer Jeremy Camp and his first wife Melissa. She died of cancer just four months after they were married. Uh oh, did I just drop a major spoiler? Considering that Camp\u2019s story is well-known to Christian music fans, I\u2019m going with NO.<\/p>\n

\u00a0KJ Apa from TV\u2019s Riverdale plays Camp who we first meet as he\u2019s leaving his Indiana home for Calvary Chapel Bible College. After calming his special-needs brother (Dodd) over his leaving, his parents drop him off at the bus station where they present him with a new guitar. He sneaks backstage at an orientation week concert where he asks Kry lead singer Jean-Luc (Parsons, The Originals) how to make it in the music business. Jean-Luc tells Jeremy he should be asking a different question before enlisting his help as a roadie for the night. This entails bringing guitars to Jean-Luc on stage between songs. This is when Jeremy spots Melissa (Robertson, A Dog\u2019s Purpose) in the crowd. Instantly smiiten, he awkwardly strikes up a conversation with her after the show. It isn\u2019t too long until they start hanging out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Naturally, there are complications, the main one being that Jean-Luc is also interested in Melissa. When she and Jeremy begin dating, she asks him to keep it secret because she doesn\u2019t want to hurt Jean-Luc who she only likes as a friend. The road to true love, as well all know, is never easy. Jeremy and Melissa hit a few bumps and roadblocks along the way. And then Melissa gets sick. Knowing that it\u2019s true love and she doesn\u2019t have much time, they decide to get married.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You may think I\u2019ve told you all about I Still Believe<\/strong>, but I haven\u2019t. We all know that any faith-based movie worth its weight in gold, frankincense and myrrh must have at least one character undergo a crisis of faith. Jeremy has one of those after he loses his wife. He begins to question whether God really listens to prayers. He and many, MANY others prayed for her recovery and she still died. What\u2019s he supposed to do with that? For that answer, I refer you to the film\u2019s title, taken from one of Camp\u2019s top hit songs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have a soft spot for corny tearjerkers, you all know that. That\u2019s what I Still Believe<\/strong> is, through and through, right to the core. It also contains a message about faith and how you must hold onto it even in the darkest times. While the Erwins keep reminding you of the film\u2019s agenda, it never reaches the point of sanctimony. It preaches without being too preachy. That doesn\u2019t mean I Still Believe<\/strong> doesn\u2019t have other problems. It does.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main problem is the screenplay. It\u2019s not well-written. For one thing, it lacks development, in both plot and character. It isn\u2019t until more than midway through the movie that we learn that Jeremy\u2019s father (Sinise, Forrest Gump) is a minister. It\u2019s possible that I missed it earlier, but for me to miss such an important piece of information, it must have been an offhand reference or something. Speaking of Jeremy\u2019s family, we don\u2019t see a lot of his disabled brother after that first scene. Given their interaction, I thought he was going to be more of a major character. Along those same lines, Melissa talks to Jeremy about her older sister in a way that implies she\u2019ll figure heavily into their story. Again, it doesn\u2019t happen. She has one conversation with Jeremy and it gets interrupted. Then there\u2019s the conflict between Jeremy and Jean-Luc after it\u2019s revealed that Melissa is dating Jeremy. It\u2019s not really much of a conflict and it\u2019s settled in too facile a manner. Maybe it went down like this in real life, but it sure doesn\u2019t make for compelling drama.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the plus side, there is great chemistry between Apa and Robertson. Given that we\u2019re talking about a PG-rated religious picture, things don\u2019t get hot and heavy. There is real affection between them though. Individually, the actors do a fine job. Apa convincingly plays the husband toggling between worry and anguish. He also does all his own singing. He has a good voice. Robertson is better in the Ali McGraw role, a spirited young woman not easy to catch. Her devotion to God is palpable. When sharing her passion for the cosmos with Jeremy, she says, \u201cGod is so infinitely vast AND He knows my name.\u201d She makes it sound sincere. The rest of the cast, which includes country music star Shania Twain as Jeremy\u2019s mother, does the best they can with underwritten roles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll admit to being moved a few times by I Still Believe<\/strong>. What can I say? I\u2019m not made of stone. The idea of losing a loved one gets to me. Also, I enjoy good melodrama. On that level, I Still Believe<\/strong> works. I just wish the script was tighter. The movie runs a little longer than it needs to. Still, it\u2019s pretty good. I can see it attracting preteen and teen girls, especially the ones who watch Apa on Riverdale religiously.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Still Believe (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: The Erwin Brothers (Jon and Andrew)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn and Madeline Carroll\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kristopher Kimlin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 13, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Gary Sinise, Shania Twain, Melissa Roxburgh, Nathan Parsons, Nicholas Bechtel, Reuben […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/I-Still-Believe-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7088,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6735\/revisions\/7088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}