Review of The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (2017) by Johne C — 25 May 2017

I read an article awhile back that suggested that LOVE ACTUALLY killed the dependable Romcom formula. I can report that the genre has been resurrected here as a meet-cute with Christian overtones (distributed by the WWE?!). There's nothing new here and nobody will threaten any awards show rosters but people didn't go see the old Romcoms because of the variety. With the old school Romcoms, you know what you liked and you got it over and here. You know what will happen before you walk in but that's part of the charm. The familiar rhythms are all here - arrogant bad boy meets emotionally-wounded good girl, they get off to a rocky start, hijinks ensue, he begins to win her over but just when things are looking up... you know the drill.

What's interesting about this treatment is how earnest this cast is with such a cheesy script. It's adorable. I watched this with my wife and she declared it to be better than most of my movie picks. As Christian films go, it's not a 'faith-based' film. I say that as praise.

This film does a good job of portraying Christians we see ourselves - earnest, a little square, good-hearted if largely talentless, trying to demonstrate the Grace we claim to believe in. I particularly liked the early scenes where Gavin tries to look and sound Christian using bits and pieces of Christianese he's picked up from old movies and pop culture assumptions. He looked as awkward taking the elements as Donald Trump putting a fiver in the Communion plate.

Bottom line - it's just a Christian Romcom the way they used to make them. This was an utterly unremarkable and completely formulaic film of a sort they don't really make anymore. We had a good time. Sometimes the old forms are best.