KJ’s drama disappoints
I Still Believe (PG, 117 mins) Directed by the Erwin brothers Reviewed by James Croot ★★1⁄2
He’s been nominated for a Grammy, has topped music charts 32 times and sold more than five million albums. And yet you’ve probably never heard of Jeremy Camp.
After watching this superficial, syrupy drama you, like me, might feel you haven’t learnt a lot more about him, other than that he’s a talented musician who loved his first girlfriend – and God – a lot.
In a lot of ways, faith-based filmmaking specialists Andrew and Jon Erwin (I Can Only Imagine)
have made the anti-Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody musical biopic. There’s not even a whiff of sex, drugs or rock’n’roll on display here.
Instead, it’s all soft focus, flared lenses, health crises, relationship angst and plenty of prayer, as Indiana-born Camp (Riverdale’s
Kiwi-born star KJ Apa) attempts to woo fellow Calvary Chapel Bible College student Melissa Lynn Henning (Tomorrowland’s Britt Robertson).
While charmed by his inspiring lyrics and guitar licks, she’s reluctant to even commit to a date, lest it upset her old friend Jean-Luc (Nathan Parsons). Cue an awkward love triangle, before fate intervenes.
Demonstrating again the undoubted chemistry that they showed during their scenes together in A Dog’s Purpose, Apa and Robertson are what save I Still Believe from drowning in a sea of schmaltz. The pair sell their nascent romance and growing deep affection with aplomb, no easy task when saddled with a script that can’t decide if it’s a teen weepie (a la Five Feet Apart) or a sub-par (Nicholas) Sparks-esque romanticdrama.
Given the chance to showcase his musical and leading man abilities, Apa grabs it with both hands, and Robertson’s performance makes you wonder why she isn’t a more regular Hollywood fixture.
Everyone else though, including former Forrest Gump star Gary Sinise and singing superstar Shania Twain as Camp’s parents, are given very little to play with, as the film prefers to focus on espousing a particular world view, rather than creating anything more than thinly sketched supporting characters and following a very predictable narrative path.