A Husband's Confession

THE PREACHER'S SIN/A HUSBAND'S CONFESSION (TV movie 2015) 2 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 2:03 min

BASIC PLOT: Evan Tanning (JR Bourne) is a successful preacher for a large congregation, and has a flourishing radio show. But his boss, Bill Taggart (Bill Lake) is a bit of a tool. He thinks he owns Evan, and when family struggles arise, Bill lowers the hammer on Evan.

When Evan was a young man, he joined the Army, and had a loving relationship with a woman named Monica (Diane White). Unbeknownst to Evan, she has a son, and now that she's dying of cancer, she wants her son to have a father. For some unknown reason, this puts Evan's job at risk. Having a biracial son you didn't know about is apparently something to be ashamed of.

He's also having trouble with his niece Jamie (Allie Gonino), who recently came to live with his family, after her mother's suicide. She's getting into trouble, and her boyfriend is coveted by Bill Taggart 's daughter, Tinsley (Stephanie La Rochelle). This is creating additional problems for everyone.

Will Evan ever learn to stand up for himself, and his family, and finally understand what it means to be a man?

WHAT WORKS: *THE ACTING IS OK BY MOST OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS JR Bourne, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Bill Lake & Allie Gonino all do a fine job with such a a flawed script. But it fails them in a myriad of ways.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *THE DIRECTING & CINEMATOGRAPHY IS A MESS We are constantly too far away, and then too close to be an enjoyable watch. I don't know if I should blame the writer/director Michelle Mower, or the cinematographer Bill St. John. They both have a lot to answer for.

*NO HUSBAND, WHO WANTS TO STAY MARRIED, WOULD SIGN A CONTRACT GIVING AWAY 80% OF HIS LIFETIME EARNINGS Especially, when his wife explicitly said she didn't agree, and didn't want him to. He wouldn't sign it, if he wanted to stay married that is. It also makes him pretty unlikable, a cardinal sin in melodramas. We, the viewers, don't respect him, because he's a doormat, and we don't like him, because he treats his boss better than his wife. This is a pretty big flub by the writer, Michelle Mower.

*IN 2015, WOULD IT REALLY BE THAT BIG OF DEAL TO HAVE AN INTERRACIAL SON YOU WERE NEVER TOLD ABOUT? I can see if this were the 1960's-1980's, but 2015? He had a relationship with a black woman, while in the Army, a caring relationship. He shipped out, and she never told him she was pregnant. Why would this be a scandal in 2015? You could spin this into a joyous event, I have a son I didn't know about, so what's the scandal here? Also, why is there no DNA test? Wouldn't that be a requirement?

*I DON'T KNOW MANY TEENAGED BOYS WHO LET THEIR PARENTS DICTATE WHO THEY GO OUT WITH Especially when they are seniors in high school. What's with all the weak, pathetic men in this movie?

*THE SAPPY MUSIC IS AN EPIC FAIL Usually I'm a big fan of music in movies, but this is beyond saccharine, and the cloyingly sweet speeches that go along with it, are just as bad. Your teeth will rot from watching this clap trap.

*THIS MOVIE USES EVERY TRITE, HACKNEYED CLICHÉ IT CAN THINK OF and none of them work. It's a pathetic attempt at drama, and an epic fail as a melodrama.

*THE LAWYER WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO REPRESENT THE TAGGARTS AFTER ALREADY TAKING JAMIE'S CASE That's a clear conflict of interest, and not believable in the slightest.

*THERE'S NO NEED FOR THIS FILM TO BE THIS BLOODY This movie can't decide what it wants to be. Is it a teenage conflict movie, is it a long lost son movie, is it a disgraced preacher movie, you'll never know, because it's really none of these. It's a haphazard melange of disjointed ideas that never form a cohesive story.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE! If you want to watch a good made-for-tv movie about a preacher, try Secrets of Eden (2012) starring John Stamos. It's so much better!

CLOSING NOTES: *THIS IS A MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE, please keep that in mind before you watch/rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE FILM, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.

This is definitely an entertaining and closer to reality movie than you usually see on Lifetime. One of the first things to think about with this movie is what exactly IS the preacher's sin? As you watch the storyline unravel, there are a few. Most of the characters are pretty well drawn - most. But two of the most important characters are oddly flat I'm going to focus this review on the fumbling of the preachers biggest "sin" if that's what we want to call the miracle of life. On top of some family drama with his wife's niece who moves into the home after the tragic loss of her mother, the preacher finds out he fathered an adult son of his own before he got married. The two most vanilla characters in the entire movie are the two Black characters, the biracial son and his ailing Black mother. The son is uncomfortably forgiving, as is his mother. It gets even worse because the good pastor essentially denies the existence of his son while repeatedly pretending to be a great parent at home and telling the adult child he's there for him - as long as he knows his place as a secret. Even when the boy's mother dies, he doesn't clear time to stay with him through the grieving process. You have to wonder why if he and his wife had such a great relationship he didn't sit down and tell her the truth from the beginning. It's not like the son's a toddler. Was he worried that his wife would lose it because the child was Black, or that he had any child? He literally had to be blackmailed into standing up as a man and publicly admitting that he fathered a Black child. There was a lot to unpack there that frankly should have been at least half the focus of the film.

Almost every other Lifetime movie has been a little straightforward "Wrong" or "Perfect" whatever so this is a slightly different formula. A radio preacher about to become national discovers he has an illegitimate son. He also has an orphaned niece living with him who gets in trouble. Allie Gonino acts well as the niece. She gets involved with a boy but a girl who likes the boy is a psycho. The two intertwined stories are quite involving.

Popular pastor JR Bourne (as Evan Tanning) is on the verge of becoming a house-hold name. His new book "The Godly Parent's Bible" is taking off and his radio talk-show "Family in the Forefront" is about to go national. However, there are a couple of family problems which could tarnish Mr. Bourne's holy image. He and wife Tara Spencer-Nairn (as Lauren) have taken in an orphaned niece who likes to party. Seventeen-year-old Allie Gonino (as Jamie Barringer) also has two-toned green hair and a healthy sexual appetite. High school hunk Glenn Cashin (as Quinton Paul) arouses both Ms. Gonino and her blonde nemesis Stephanie La Rochelle (as Tinsley Traggert). Getting him to bed could prove costly...

Gonino's underage adventures are only half the trouble...

Pastor Bourne is also made aware of a secret from his past, shared by needy young Demi Oliver (as Gabe Roswell). "The Preacher's Sin" is rather minor, if it's even considered a sin. There is possibly a parallel to his 17-year-old niece, who is sexually active and partakes of illegal substances. Your view of whether or not their behavior constitutes sin may be based on your religious belief system. Other characters are more sinful, like devilishly fun preacher's boss Bill Lake (as Bill Traggert). Their stories constitute a good soap opera storyline. There is nothing revelatory here, but you've got to give credit to writer-director Michelle L. Mower and her cast for making the characters engaging.

***** The Preacher's Sin (2015--11-14) Michelle L. Mower ~ JR Bourne, Allie Gonino, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Stephanie La Rochelle

As of this review, there is only one other review, and it is very accurate. I want to elaborate on some specific points that make me give it a good, but not stellar, rating.

We have two major plots going on at once in the story of a fairly upper class radio evangelist who signs a contract with a hateful, mercantile man who promotes him to go on an expensive tour. One plot is about a son the man had from an affair that enrages his employer, and which he keeps secret. The second is his niece, who is a party girl with a fairly good heart whom he becomes guardian to following her mother's death.

In ways, this is mature, but in ways it seems very insubstantial in the motivations of the protagonist. To most of us, his motives seem very meager in his willingness to succumb to his boss's demands, but that's probably why most of us aren't in high positions.

His motivation to keep his son a secret never really pans out for me, even before his boss demands it be a secret. While his boss seems a bit of a caricature to most of us, I do realize such men do exist in the upper crust, and again this is due to most of us being totally alien to the life style.

The movie does a pretty good job in showing the motivations of the people. I'm not sure it shows enough to persuade ordinary people to accept the protagonist's desire to keep his secret. I know it's a hard thing to tell your wife, but considering what the man preached, it especially seemed necessary. The man was educated enough to know the phrase "oh what a tangle web we weave".

On the other plot of the niece, I don't want to spoil that. It gets very scary, though. The main characters pull this through, and the actors and actresses are good. Some of them are asked to play very shallow and horrible characters, and that takes some guts.

All in all, it was a worth while film.