Review of Sympathy for Delicious (2010) by Glenn M — 10 May 2011

So I rented this movie last night because the Infinity On Demand teaser caught my attention. I'm glad I did too. Almost hesitate to recommend it though because it definitely is flawed and given the "controversial" subject matter, I'm sure many of you will both hate it and hate on it.

First of you, you need to pretend you're watching an indie film. I can't understand how some movies can be so star studded and still seem so half baked as to be "indie" but SfD definitely falls into this category. The use of handheld photography that is sometimes (I think deliberately) under lit also ads to the general aura of indieness. But ultimately, the story is this film's undoing. Great subject matter, fabulous performances, wonderful moments, but ultimately the writing is at least one or two revisions away from prime time.

It helps if you have no knowledge of how bands really work, but I'm beginning to wonder if the inner workings of modern music are really more of a secret than I think they are and I'm more of an insider than I realize.

By the end, you're not sure what motivates any of the lead characters and are left wanting more from the secondary ones because their lesser exposure still has them making sense.

But ultimately, if you're interested in how God might work in a non-religious context, this movie is a good find despite it's shortcomings. It's refreshing seeing a thoroughly modern context openly acknowledging a God of miracles no matter how flawed the writing.

Really, when it comes down to it, I've seen movies with far worse writing too that escape without scathing reviews. But given the topic, I think this movie would have gotten it's share of criticism even if everything about it had been top notch.