Jesus Revolution

Grade: C+

Two superlatives came to mind as I watched Jesus Revolution: this is the best soundtrack of the year, and this is the most intrusive score of the year so far. The song selection is fantastic – a few classic rock songs we all know and love, but mostly deep cuts that I was unfamiliar with, but glad to hear. This is a very dramatic movie. Big broad strokes. The score is there – ever manipulative and unsubtle with its booming drums and thundering strings – to let us know how we should be feeling. We are always aware of it.

Kelsey Grammer stars as Chuck Smith, a mild-mannered conservative pastor at Calvary Chapel, a small church with a modest parishionership. If this film came out later in the year, and was a more open, grounded movie, not crammed so far into its niche hole, we might be talking awards consideration for Grammer, who gives a career-best performance. It is Southern California in 1968. Chuck’s rebellious daughter, Janette (a wonderful Ally Ioannides), picks up a man walking down the road, and brings him home to meet her dad. He is Lonnie Frisbee, who not only looks like Jesus, but also likes to preach about him.

Chuck and Frisbee begin working together at Calvary Chapel. Attendance increases, but Frisbee’s unorthodox methods (the loud live music, the abundance of barefoot hippies) rub some tried-and-true regulars the wrong way. Chuck, in solidarity with the new wave, tells the congregation that the door is open and anyone is welcome – and if you decide this is no longer for you, well, the door works both ways. The movie is about the “Jesus freak” revolution of the late 1960s and early 70s. Everything in the plot happens rather predictably and easily without much conflict. When conflict and pushback does arise, they are the best parts of the movie. More conflict, please.

There is a subplot that, at first, doesn’t seem to be related to our main story, but we just know they will inevitably interweave somehow. This is a great story, but there is lots of soapy melodrama and bombast, and little to no exploration into the movement, when it came to doubters/detractors/etc. No complaints with the performances. Jonathan Roumie as Frisbee is interesting, memorable, and has a great voice. Kimberly Williams-Paisley, best known as Steve Martin and Diane Keaton’s daughter (the bride) in the Father of the Bride movies, shows up here. Nice to see her again. Anna Grace Barlow, as the character who perhaps gets the most opportunity to show range, is marvelous. She has a great smile, the camera loves her, and she is one to watch.

Jesus Revolution has a good heart, but its execution is extremely heavy-handed, and I feel like it preaches to the converted. I bet it will be very popular in churches. I can totally picture viewing parties there, and in Christian schools to students, where many would cry through it. Of course they would. This movie seems to be created for them, and people who have already made up their minds.

Grade: C+