Christian Mingle

Another in a long line of cornball Hallmark Christmas movies. Even their Hallmarks Hall of fame movies are no longer the great movies of the past.

The only reason I watched this cringe fest was because I made a deal that I'd watch this if my friend watched a horror movie. I knew going into it that it would be bad, but wow just in the first 10 minutes it was worse than I thought. The plot revolves around Lacey Chabert's character and Jonathan Patrick Moore's character. Chabert's character is desperate to find "mr. right", so she goes onto the religious dating site, Christian Mingle. Now is she a Christian? No ofcourse not... and that's how we get our movie. This movie literally does everything wrong, like I'm just wondering who thought this was a good idea.... The acting is atrocious, Chabert has a few scenes where I'm reminded that she's actually a decent actress, but my god she just has no material to work with. The dialogue is soooo cringeworthy, there were many times I just felt so emberrased for the actors involved. They try to be funny with the fact that Chabert isn't a Christian, and she has to pretend to be one around his family... but it's not funny at all. The "comedic" moments are just flat out cringe inducing, instead of being genuinely funny. And then when you're not cringing, you're just being preached at. 1/10, shockingly bad.

Christian Mingle: The Movie is so brazenly artificial and inauthentic that it almost begs to be ignored; not reviewed, not analyzed, and not even discussed, just quietly, humbly passed by as other films nudge it out of the limelight and into obscurity. Criticized in the past were films like Jobs and The LEGO Movie, for allegedly being nothing more than product placement for Apple and LEGO, respectively, despite bearing actual story lines, characters, and thematic depth; on the other hand, Christian Mingle: The Movie is a film so deeply-rooted in insincerity, it disrespects its actors by giving them shallow human characters with not a shred of humanity to be found all in the means of promoting an already ubiquitous dating website. Lord have some mercy.

The film focuses on Gwyneth Hayden (Lacey Chabert), a well-off woman who has worked her way to the top of the corporate ladder, and rather showing the more interesting story at hand here - Gwyneth's clear business success in what looks to be a male-dominated feel - we explore her dating life, or lack thereof. Gwyneth fears the clock is ticking faster and faster, as she's approaching middle-age and spends holiday after holiday alone, only meriting a handful of poor, short-term relationships in her life. After catching its cloying and persistent ads on Television, Gwyneth, despite being a non-practicing Christian, with little knowledge of The Bible and the story of Jesus Christ, signs up for the dating website Christian Mingle, where devout Christians can meet like-minded believers and hopefully find happiness on their way to eternal bliss.

In an act contributing to the new era of "click, meet, marry, die, done," so coined by Gwyneth herself, Gwyneth agrees to meet Paul Wood (Jonathan Patrick Moore), a loyal, good-natured Christian man who clings to his beliefs with his clean and equally good-natured family. Gwyneth admires Paul's niceness and genuine charisma, leading her to try and put on a Christian act to fool Paul and his family that she is a practicing Christian. Gwyneth's methods are appallingly, obviously fake, but Paul's vision seems to be too clouded by the glow of his halo to notice. The two carry out a picturesque relationship together, so long as the conversation steers away from anything remotely biblical, or else Gwyneth turns into a babbling, tongue-tied idiot.

It's impossible to appreciate Gwyneth and Paul as people because they never emerge as more than anything but ridiculous, cardboard cutouts for the length of the entire film. Writer/director Corbin Bernsen seems keen on making this film as cloyingly fake as possible, never offering any sort of real conversation between these characters nor allowing them to grow to be more than wooden caricatures programmed to spout perfunctory dialog and unsubtle website promotions. The only thing more miserable than the romanticism in the film is the abundance of corny jokes, which are so painfully unfunny I can't bring myself to reiterate their stupidity in my review. The less said about them, the better.

There's not an ounce of sincerity in the way the dramatic scenes of the film are handed; typical for low-budget, independent Christian films, there's always overly obvious orchestration or explosive Christian rock thrown in to assure you laugh and smile at the right times and cry at the appropriate moments. Christian Mingle functions with the latter, throwing in catchy but terribly overwrought and unsubtle Christian rock ballads that do nothing but make an already fake, insincere film more phony and insincere.

To those who think the love in Christian Mingle: The Movie depicts anything close to the kind of love or passion found in real life, I got news for you, it can barely market a dating website in a believable manner, let alone begin to understand or depict anything in the way of genuine intimacy.

Starring: Lacey Chabert and Jonathan Patrick Moore. Directed by: Corbin Bernsen.

I decided to watch this movie as a joke. Sometimes going into a movie knowing it's bad will sometimes help brace for the train wreck. But no foreknowledge of this film could prepare you for how bad it is. On the nose dialogue. No empathy for any characters. Forced changed. Forced plot. Even the camera work is amateur.

The best types of films are supposed to make you forget you're watching a film. Sadly, for Christian Mingle, you're constantly reminded you're watching a movie. A bad one.

The 2014 film Christian Mingle, directed by Corbin Bernsen and starring Lacey Chabert, is a lighthearted romantic comedy that wears its faith proudly on its sleeve. While it doesn't reinvent the genre or shy away from formula, it offers a sincere and earnest portrayal of spiritual searching and personal growth. Unfortunately, the film's reception highlights a broader trend in media bias-namely, the tendency to dismiss Christian-themed films as artistically inferior simply because of their religious content.

Watching Christian Mingle, I found myself unexpectedly charmed. Chabert brings warmth and genuine comic timing to the role of Gwyneth, a young professional trying to find love and meaning. The plot, centered around her joining the Christian dating site (yes, the real one), is undeniably quirky. But beneath that setup is a heartfelt story about the discomfort and joy of spiritual awakening. It made me reflect not just on the characters' journeys, but on the human longing for belonging and truth.

What stands out is how the film is treated critically. Mainstream reviewers were quick to mock its premise and tone, often failing to engage with its themes beyond a surface level. This speaks to a larger issue: when a film like Christian Mingle openly discusses faith, especially Christianity, it's often labeled preachy or simplistic-even if similar emotional beats in secular films are praised as profound. There's a condescension that assumes religious audiences can't appreciate nuance or quality, and this bias keeps many honest efforts, like this one, from being judged on fair cinematic grounds.

Is Christian Mingle a perfect movie? No. The production values are modest, the dialogue sometimes clunky, and the characters occasionally veer into caricature. But it is also kind, funny in its own way, and unafraid to talk about faith without irony. For viewers open to its message, it can be surprisingly moving. It made me smile more than once and left me thinking-not about the site itself, but about how people change when they start seeking something deeper.

This film might not be for everyone, but for those tired of cynicism and hungry for hope, Christian Mingle offers a sincere alternative. It deserves better than to be laughed off the screen. The media bias against religion needs to stop!