When a small-town baseball coach, Luke Brooks (Brett Varvel) gets the offer of a lifetime from a larger 6A High School. he uproots his family, including his wife, Jessica (Gigi Orsillo) and son, Josh (Raphael Ruggero), and leaves the only home he's ever known to move to Dallas. But as a man of faith, he soon faces extreme opposition to his coaching methods from the school superintendent, Michael Jamison (Todd Terry). You see, Jamison is not a Christian, but Brooks is, so this ensues the issues. Sounds a lot of what's happening today in this country.
Others to round out the cast are Eric Hanson as Coach Gilbert, Cameron Arnett as Sam Parker, Jackson Trent as Coach Morris, Justin Sterner as Ryan Jamison, Levan Smith as Tony, David Michael Reardon as Cody Garrison, Garry Nation as Ted Graham, Brendan Carl Reimer as Joshua Brooks and Candace Kirkpatrick as Heather Gray.
This was surprising well directed by newcomers Marty Roberts (TV) and Jimmy Womble. Neither have directed anything in the feature film realm before and for them to come in and pull off a film as well helmed as this was shocking at best. This should've never been the case, but these two were assuredly naturals. These actors showed such pathos with just the right amount of emotion that you knew that they were being directed well. The writing was also performed by these same two filmmakers, and, again, they had no other writing experience under their belts, which, again, tells me they are naturals. And really, other than a coupe of very small places of choppiness and continuity issues, this script was amazing. These consummate pros will definitely receive more work, considering that they are so green professionally. The message is as timely as any can be: a teacher goes to a school, and in teaching the students unorthodox methods, is caught between his religious beliefs and the school's rigid intolerance of these methods. Sound familiar today? Whatever side of the fence anyone is on, if a person's religious beliefs are hampered in any way, it becomes a slippery slope due to the first amendment of the US constitution of freedom of speech and religion. What made this healthy was that these writers carried their approach of this in a very constructive way, which, in a country that is so divided on many levels, makes this approach a breath of fresh air
Whether one is a Christian or not, this film has something to learn for everyone. It doesn't pull people apart , but uplifts, or attempts to understand the people in this. And even though this film does not apologize for its basis, it truly attempts to understand where different people are at in their lives, so they hopefully can heal, and we all could use that.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG 127mins.
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