This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Life Imitating Art
Plot Overview
Gavin Stone (Daniel Jeffrey Donaldson) of Masonville,
Illinois took the networks by storm as a child actor. When his mom
died, Gavin (Sam Jenkins) became estranged from his father (Neil
Flynn,) did multiple stints in rehab, and was forgotten
by fickle show biz. In his thirties he still follows his home sport
teams around and while they were in town for a home game, he
partied excessively, got busted for his “rager,” and
was sentenced to 200 hours of community service doing maintenance
at Masonville Bible Church.
While there Gavin (Brett Dalton)
auditioned and was accepted for the part of Jesus in their annual
Passion Play after he first had a phony, qualifying conversion. The
Character he played was beyond his grasp, which would have been
closer to Judas, as per author John Scalzi: “Imagine if every
species named itself after its greatest flaw. We could name our
species arrogance” (265.) The people and the part
worked wonders on him until when his community service was up, it
was time to fish or cut bait.
Ideology
Clueless Gavin consults the Web via his phone to look up
Christian Etiquette. First order of business is “Go to
church.” There he meets pastor Allan Richardson (D.B.
Sweeney) up to his elbows in repairing a water heater to save a
buck. The man of the cloth quips, “‘Drink [waters] from
your own cistern,’ proverbs sort of”— (Prov. 5:15, NKJV). According to a note in my Jewish Study Bible:
Prov. 5:15-19: This … passage in the Bible … explicitly celebrates the pleasures of marital sex. … The metaphors in Prov. 5:15-18 speak of a man's wife as his well, a source of refreshment that slakes (sexual) thirst.—Also noted for the same passage in my Criswell Study Bible is:
5:15-19 These verses use frankly erotic language … in expressing … that sexual delight in marriage is by divine design. … The wife is compared to a “cistern” and “well.” This figure enhances her value in the eastern world in which water was scarce and valuable.—
These verses go on to extol fidelity. Sounds like the pastor has something on his mind (“I've been a pastor for decades. Nothing shocks me anymore.”)
He goes on to tell Gavin he expects him to put in his full hours. This corresponds to temperance. As a Christian ethic it's expressed in knowing (1Cor. 9:24-25) “that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” The community service won't be completed instantly as that catapult effected in the rager, or in some distant time as Gavin's dad is doing as a labor of love on the dream house he'd promised his now deceased wife, but in good time as tracked by an electronic device Gavin uses.
He starts by mopping the women's rest room but forgot to put up a sign, and when the pastor's daughter Kelly Richardson (Anjelah Johnson-Reyes) inconveniently enters, Gavin is jousting with the mop handle. He shadow-nails her down below. As he passes the paper towel dispenser on his way to “get a sign” a towel rolls out of the slot. Whether this is a sign of a sexual adventure to come is left to our speculation.
By and by we hear a sermon: “The
more we give up control, the more Jesus takes control.” This
is a problem for Gavin who not being regenerated is left to his own
devices. Rots of Ruck.
In one scene in the play he modifies “Oh ye of little faith!” to using “you.” In a barroom scene a plaque on the wall reads, “Thou shalt not whine.” Thou as a subject is you singular while ye is you plural. Changing them both indiscriminately to you is a hallmark of going to the New King James Version, but it confuses the issue regarding the command to, (2Cor. 6:14) “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: ...” For sure they're not allowed to have a non-believer take part in a ministry of putting on the play, but individually they're allowed to marry whomever, believer or not (“It's your call. I trust you completely.”)
Gavin is “clean” meaning he's off intoxicants, notwithstanding there are many other uses of the word clean. During Prohibition in the 1920's temperance was used a lot to mean clean as used here. But, of course, it can have broader application. The KJV of 1611 enjoined temperance in, Acts 24:24-25, 1Cor. 9:25, Gal. 5:23, Titus 1:7-8, Titus 2:2, and 2Peter 1:5-6. When the KJV was (needlessly in my opinion) updated by the ASV in 1900, temperance was left in. Nevertheless, it has been reinterpreted by many modern Bible translators as self-control so as not to confuse the common man who since Prohibition regards temperance as applicable only to drink. My Concise Thesaurus has “sober adj. temperate. A person who is sober is not drunk. A temperate person exercises moderation and self-restraint and for that reason is unlikely to drink to excess” (170.) Modern Protestant Bibles such as RSV (1952), and later NKJV, ESV & NIV now read “self-control” where they used to read “temperance.” Yet for example California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a March, 2024 interview extolled President Biden, saying: “We have American manufacturing coming back home, all because of Biden's wisdom, because of his temperance, his capacity to lead in a bipartisan manner—” Bipartisan leadership is by nature temperate. The Jubilee 2000 Bible still uses temperance. It's valid for more than drink.
If “self-control” is substituted for
“temperance” in the verses above it's not just Gavin
who is in trouble. According to Porter G. Perrin, Index to
English: The Meaning of Words 3b. Synonyms. A
synonym is a word of nearly the same meaning as another.
… There are very few pairs of interchangeable
words
(192). And according to Fowler, “Synonyms,
in the narrowest sense, are separate words whose meaning, both
denotation & connotation, is so fully identical that one can
always be substituted for the other without change in the
effect of the sentence in which it is done. Whether any such
perfect synonyms exist is doubtful.” According to Professor
George P. Marsh in an 1859 postgraduate lecture on the English
Bible of 1611: “Words and ideas are so inseparably connected,
they become in a sense connatural, that we cannot change the
one without modifying the other. … A new translation of the Bible,
therefore, or an essential modification of the existing [KJV] version,
is substantially a new book, a new Bible, another revelation”
(454).
The second entry in Christian Etiquette is
“Wear the Uniform.” Gavin ends up looking like a
dressed-down Mormon, and there's a whole extra section with my
DVD describing his
getup, so I'll concentrate on a Christian woman's attire.
The apostle Paul enjoins (1Tim. 2:9) “that women adorn
themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness
and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly
array.” “Shamefacedness” has to do with
being easily embarrassed. The relevant note in my Franklin
Electronic Bible reads, “Early printer's error for
‘shamefastness’, which means modesty of
character.” The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible
restores the original ‘shamefastness’, and
the ASV (1900) carries it, too. The NKJV substitutes, “with
propriety and moderation.” Blonde TV broadcaster Nikki
Boyer wears a black leatherette jacket, and a makeup girl the
same in a vest. Not appropriate for Christian ladies. Kelly wears
her hair down in an old family photo before there was any
fiancé to be in it. Eight years after their breakup she
wears it severly pulled back with a pony tail, bespeaking a loss of
innocence. After her “non-date date” with Gavin and
then their “whatever date” she wears it down again,
with her self-proclaimed breeziness of character, and Gavin
compliments her on her “breezy” dress. Okay.
Shamefastness would express itself in a white wedding
dress on a virgin bride. Dear Abby once enjoined women to remain
virgins until they get married, but she's updated her advice for
the times to let them give in sooner. I suppose the NKJV's
“with moderation” would go right along with that.
Kelly's breezy dress was white with large strawberries on it. It would
not be a reach to see in it stains from a girl's popped cherry.
Kelly
was “engaged 7–8 years ago. Head of our music ministry.
Couple months before our wedding takes his music to Nashville
along with his new girlfriend.” Kelly for her part then
“flew to Nepal to work at our church there for two
years.” It's a move a girl in the family way would make if
she didn't want to bump into anyone who recognized her. She tells
Gavin, “You don't know what it's like living in a
fishbowl like this. Pastor's daughter. Everybody's
watching, waiting for me to make a mistake.” The pastor told
Gavin, “We don't need to share with anybody why you're
here. You'll fly under the radar.” What's good for the goose
is good for the gander.
Production Values
“” (2017) was directed by Dallas Jenkins. It was written by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell. It stars Brett Dalton, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, and Neil Flynn. Also featured are Shawn Michaels, Tim Frank, Liam Matthews and Kirk B.R. Woller. The large parts were well acted, the small hit and miss.
MPA rated it PG for thematic elements including a crucifixion image. The contemporary church music was hardly a draw. The character development exceeded expectations. It was very watchable regarless of one's religious persuation. Runtime is 1½ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
There was a lot of good humor but not at the expense of religion. It had more to do with the protagonist being out of his element. More than one party was the beneficiary of a second chance.
The final stage production was very moving.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability for children: Suitable for children with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Version (KJV.) Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769, 1873. Software, print.
Biden, Joe. Quoted from Jack Birle's article, “Gavin Newsom calls Biden's age a ‘gift’ rather than a liability.” In The Washington Examiner. Web.
The Criswell Study Bible. Authorized King James Version. Nashville | Camden: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1979. Print.
Fowler, H.W., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. USA: Oxford UP. 1946. Print.
Franklin note is from “The Bible Word Book,” R. Bridges and L. Weigle, Thomas Nelson 1960.
The Jewish Study Bible: Tanakh. New York: Oxford University Press. New Jewish Publication Society 2nd ed. of 1999. Print.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version, Copyright © 1979 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Print.
Marsh, George P.
“Disturbance of Formulas.”
Lectures on the English
Language. London: John Murray, 1863. Print.
——available to
read or download at www.bibles.n7nz.org.
Perrin, Porter G. Index to English. Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1939. Print.
The Right Word II. A Concise Thesaurus. Based on the New American Heritage Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1983. Print.
Scalzi, John. The Ghost Brigades. Copyright © 2006 by John Scalzi. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org