Checked out the new sports/Christian film Overcomer… a movie that focuses on the wrong character but also on cross-country running (and then on Christ out of pretty much nowhere).
The film is set in a small town that has just lost its factory so people are moving out. The local high school basketball coach has to live with his team vanishing and the season cancelling. So he has the cross-country team foisted upon him… a team with exactly one girl… who has asthma. And is a secret klepto.
For a sports movie, the flick is far more interested in the coach than the athlete who has to overcome her problems and become a great runner. I wanted to know more about her and less the coach and how he gets drafted into judging the drama kids or whatever random alleged comedy the flick dreams up.
Regardless of that, the film spends over an hour being what it is and then randomly (maybe cynically) decides its a Christian movie. That the girl – who is good except for being a klepto – needs to get right with God. And then spends 10 minutes in bible study and audience lecture. Scenes that could quite literally be cut from the film. Because all the Bible stumping has no actual effect on the end of the film and the Big Race. It’s as though they had an average high school sports movie and then inserted a Christian theme so they could market to a certain set of the audience (who would enjoy the movie regardless).
The film is (beyond my cynicism) basically an ok if cliched sports movie mixed with some Hallmark schmaltz. Not a bad time at the theater overall unless you really really don’t need to be proselytized to.
Score: 75