The Resurrection of Gavin Stone

This is a Christian Propaganda movie and I'm an unbeliever. To be precise I made mine Captain Fantastic's lines where the children say 'We don't make fun of People … (Pause) … except Christians'.

This film was however nice. An Indie movie with an inspired plot and good lines. And art is art, no matter who makes it and what his certainties are. What matters is only the result and both Andrea Nasfell (Writer) and Dallas Jenkins (Director) are renowned artists, and all the Cast did well (Brett Dalton in particular).

So if you'd like to watch, sit down and breathe normally. Even though Christians will Try and Convert you, I've already been through it and made it trough the end unchanged. And so will you, I'm sure.

I will be the first to admit that often movies in the Christian genre are cheesy, outdated, heavy, and, honestly, a bit embarrassing for the Christian community. I was delighted to see that The Resurrection of Gavin Stone has broken the previous mold. I appreciate that there are characters designed to basically poke fun of the Christian stereotypes (guess what? We get it. Most people outside of our community think we are lame. That's OK). This movie addresses those stereotypes directly in a lighthearted way in a broader communication to showcase the acceptance and welcoming community that a church can be. Not everyone has that experience at a church every time, but to showcase the example of what it should and could look like is beautifully done. The skepticism and acceptance of people brought on both sides of Christian characters and non-Christian characters is spot on. Overall, this is lighthearted, an excellent story of finding one's way in life, and ultimate acceptance of who people are and where they are in life. I will be seeing it again.

My wife and I have been enjoying "The Chosen" series by Dallas Jenkins. When I googled him, I read a rather curious point about how his first full length movie was a total bomb and how that impacted his personal life for a while. So naturally, we felt like we needed to see what this movie was all about since we thought The Chosen was a magnificent piece of work. We found The Resurrection of Gavin Stone on Prime and watched it.

For the life of me, I cannot understand WHY this move didn't generate better reviews and have a better rating. Sure, it's a Faith-based movie and as a Christian, I enjoy Faith-based movies and feel like I should support them. Perhaps the problem with the movie was the fact that it didn't generate much buzz when it came out in 2017 (here it is at the end of 2020 and I'm just now hearing about this movie?). But it should have generated some buzz because it was a real heart-felt movie that contained good comedy and definitely a good message of a second chance at life. And since a big part of the Christian message is having a second chance, it certainly checked that box!

I'm glad my wife and I found this movie during this Christmas season as we thoroughly enjoyed watching it!

We enjoed this movie as a family. The plot is quite clichéd and esay to forsee. But the acting is good and there is some nice slapstick dialogue and a good natured humor which - if you are familiar with church culture - makes you laugh about yourself/your church culture in a refreshing way. It is a clearly faith based film centred around the message of love, forgiveness, grace and getting a second chance. Entertaining and family friendly. Not very compelling but not too cheesey.

Wow. Despite its predictable nature, this movie is remarkably well done.

Too many faith based films lay it on too thick or can be ham-fisted and not believable. That's not the case with this movie. All the characters have depth and remarkable charm, especially the leads. In a perfect world, Brett Dalton would receive award nomination consideration for his performance. Sounds completely odd saying that about any January release but he really was that good.

The set up in the first act plays out light and predictable but after a connection is made, the rest of the film is refreshing, complex and charming yet spiritual in the best way possible. The Gavin Stone character has a true arc and true development worthy of any big budget quality Hollywood production. They capture why faith is important in those "fly over" states mentioned in the movie.

True Christian ethics are on display and this is truly a worthy effort and the best feel good film that I've seen in years.