Father Stu. M, 125 minutes. Three stars.
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Cards on the table: I'm not a believer in any religion. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate a well-done religious movie. I don't play or enjoy watching sports, either, but there are good sports films.
Mark Wahlberg, who stars and produces, and Mel Gibson - who plays a major role and whose partner Rosalind Ross is credited as writer and director - are both devout Catholics with troubled pasts. It's not surprising, then, that they would team up for a religious-themed biopic about a man who overcame many challenges - some his fault, some not - to become a priest.
Stuart Long (Wahlberg) hasn't had much of a life in Helena, Montana. He and his mother Kathleen (Jacki Weaver) are estranged from his abusive, alcoholic father Bill (Gibson) - the couple split after Stu's younger brother died as a child - and he's a self-centred, foul-mouthed delinquent and a not very successful amateur boxer still fighting at an age where most men are retiring from the ring.
When medical issues prevent him from continuing to box, he decides to go to Hollywood to become an actor.
Kathleen opposes this, but Stu is a stubborn man, and off he goes.
He's not very successful in Hollywood, either. One man offers help in exchange for sexual favours (hotly refused) but mostly Stu is stuck working in a supermarket.
One bright spot comes when he meets Carmen (Teresa Ruiz) and is instantly smitten.
Not only is Carmen wary of this stranger's sudden infatuation but she's a pious Catholic, a Sunday-School teacher not interested in a fling.
To win her over, nonbeliever Stu starts going to church and gets baptised.
It seems extreme - some women are happy with chocolates and flowers and a guy who will listen - but it works.
Then comes a major life change. Stu is badly injured in a motorcycle accident that a stranger seemed to predict.
While waiting for help he has a vision of the Virgin Mary.
This, and his painful, unexpected recovery, inspire to turn his life around in a big way. He decides - to the shock of Carmen and his family - that he will become a priest. But nothing comes easy and Stu has to fight for acceptance into the seminary - Monsignor Kelly (Malcolm McDowell) is sceptical about his suitability. In fact, we see Stu's plain-speaking sincerity can make connections where other, ostensibly more suitable candidates - like the patronising Jacob (Cody Fern) - cannot. But then there's another test for Stu: he is diagnosed with a rare muscular disease and the prognosis is dire.
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Although Ross has the onscreen credits for writing and directing, Gibson's influence seems to loom large beyond his onscreen presence as a damaged man who finds a way to reconnect with both his (somewhat similar) son and his spirituality.
Gibson's films as director often lay on the suffering - think The Passion of the Christ - and that's a big part of this story. Stu's physical, spiritual and emotional pain are heavily emphasised, almost like it's Stu's Passion we're witnessing. Perhaps Catholic viewers will relate more to this, but it seems excessive when other aspects of Stu's life could have been explored, including the various detours his life took before he became a priest and the work he did in his ministry.
As so often liberties have been taken with the truth for reasons of time and dramatic effect - for example, Bill is apparently depicted far more harshly than he really was and Stu's mother encouraged his Hollywood ambitions (presumably in real life she didn't refer to Los Angeles as being "full of fascist hippies"). And Stu's path to the priesthood was much longer.
During the end credits, there's footage, photos and words from the real Father Stu - who died in 2014 at the age of 50 - and a cute if incongruous moment with Wahlberg and a child.
Father Stu is sincere and well acted with some touching moments. It's not perfect but better than many other movies about religion, even if, like me, you don't subscribe to the theology or find the rationalisations for suffering very credible.
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