Fake faith healer Jonas Nightingale is stranded in a small town where he finds he can't fool all of the people all of the time.Fake faith healer Jonas Nightingale is stranded in a small town where he finds he can't fool all of the people all of the time.Fake faith healer Jonas Nightingale is stranded in a small town where he finds he can't fool all of the people all of the time.
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It'd been a while since I saw this movie, and I had the chance to get it, yesterday. For starters, Steve Martin was great (as he usually does), so the supporting cast.
One of the many reasons I love this movie is that it show us, graciously, a reality that many people couldn't or wouldn't accept (One of the reasons , I think, its low rate).
Do not let fanaticism cloud your judgment.
Nevertheless, if you like good stories with a nice in-message, or if you're just a fan of Mr. Martin, you can't miss this one.
I can see why some would downgrade this for its perceived bias against the religious. This is probably one of Steve Martin's deepest characters. There is depth in this movie and compelling characters. It's not really much of a comedy but it works well as a drama. If this was made with darkness, it could be a truly great movie. Director Richard Pearce doesn't have enough style.
Jonas is a con man going from town to town claiming he is a miracle preacher, Jane, his sidekick, just finds out information about the town and Jonas acts like he knows everything by miracle. Of course he and his team just take the money and run after a couple days. But when Jonas realizes the town's good nature, he starts to feel bad and falls for a waitress with a crippled brother. But things start to happen when the town's faith grows stronger and miracles really do happen.
I would recommend Leap of Faith for an afternoon of nothing to do, I think that it is an under rated cute little movie that could make you have a leap of faith for anything. Steve Martin isn't really funny in this film, but I think Leap of Faith actually showed his dramatic talents pretty well, he's awesome.
6/10
at least 7 of 10 stars
Did you know
- TriviaJonas's "mind-reading" trick, wherein he receives intimate details about his marks via a small radio, loosely follows the exploits of televangelist Peter Popoff, who performed a very similar trick with his wife at the microphone. Popoff's career took a nosedive when he was publicly "outed" on the Johnny Carson show by professional magician and skeptic James Randi, who had managed to smuggle a radio scanner into one of Popoff's revival meetings.
- GoofsWhen Will consoles a conflicted Jane by massaging her bare feet in his backyard, an overhead shot shows him rubbing her left foot but when the camera cuts to a medium shot, Will's hand is gently caressing the toes of her right foot for the remainder of the scene.
- Quotes
Jonas: Look, I run a show here. It's a lot of smoke and noise and it's strictly for the suckers. I've been pulling one kind of scam or another since I was your age, and if there's one thing I know it's how to spot the genuine article because that's what you've got to watch out for. Not the cops, you can always get around the cops. But the one thing you can never, ever get around is the genuine article, and you, kid, are the genuine article.
- Crazy creditsDuring the closing credits, the 'Angels of Mercy' singers are shown singing to a tent full of people (including some of the cast members).
- ConnectionsEdited into The Clock (2010)
- SoundtracksSit Down You're Rockin' the Boat
by Frank Loesser
Performed and Produced by Don Henley
Don Henley performs courtesy of Geffen Records
- How long is Leap of Faith?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $20,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $23,369,283
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,222,768
- Dec 20, 1992
- Gross worldwide
- $23,369,283
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1