The Film Genius

A tearjerker and a lesson in finishing strong.
 
Of course, that isn’t all there is to this piece of art.

The Kendrick Brothers have come a long way from their first film, and you can see the improvement over the years with every new movie that they produce. They scored a massive box office hit with the film, War room and given access to a few extra million dollars; I really do see them making the next “Ben-Hur”. 

Overcomer opens with a lovely drone shot of Brookshire Christian school and we are flown into the last few seconds of a basketball game where the team suffers a last-minute defeat. What follows for the next few minutes of screen time is gloom and doom; News of the cessation of the town’s major steel plant, an outflux of social capital and rumors of imminent layoffs and pay cuts. Basically, an economic shutdown looming. 

Brookshire Christian school’s human capital takes a hit as teachers resign for better opportunities out of town leaving gaps in different functional aspects of the school. In the spirit of going the extra mile to keep school programs running, the Principal is able to talk John Harrison, the basketball team coach into accepting albeit reluctantly to take up coaching the Cross-country team. Only problem is the Cross-country team is pretty much non-existent as the only person who turns up for try outs is Hannah Scott, an asthmatic sophomore who is barely a runner.  

In less than 2 hours, the story moves from a disappointing loss for the school’s basketball team, to a rather shocking victory at the prestigious state cross-country competition. Sound cliché? Maybe… Until you realize that Overcomer wasn’t really just about one character finishing strong and finding her identity, it was about the small and big wins for every other character as well; Overcoming a seemingly hopeless economic situation; Finding peace; Finding forgiveness, etc. So, what you’d ordinarily deem one of the oldest tricks in the screenplay playbook was artistically spinned to tell an uplifting story of hope.

I particularly loved seeing some of the intricate details that make for an enjoyable film experience like the humorous monologues in the drama class; Hannah’s “Ask me who I am” speech; The way that you can feel the depth of intimacy and on-screen chemistry between John and his wife without them having to exchange any ‘fluids’… And for me, this level of creativity will always be a beauty to behold in any kind of film.

The acting was also well above average. A noteworthy mention would be Cameron Arnett who pulls an amazing act as a blind, bed-ridden diabetic who gets a second chance to father his daughter, and ultimately coach her during what is likely the biggest hurdle she’d had to cross so far.

Aryn Wright-Thompson convincingly plays the role of Hannah Scott, the graciously flawed female lead with kleptomaniac tendencies and an all too familiar identity crisis. To digress a bit, Aryn did have a running coach, and they’d trained for about three weeks before the filming of this movie. Intentionality, anyone? But I digress…

The soundtrack was lit. The lyrics of Lauren Daigle’s “You say” and Hillsong’s “Who You say I am” tell a story that fit perfectly into the overall context of the story and they were strategically placed to move the story forward.

Having highlighted some of the high points of this film, I have to pitch in at this point that it wasn’t entirely without its flaws. In one of the earlier scenes where Hannah was being chased by a group of boys, the camera may have caught more than a glimpse of the lapel mic transmitter bulging from one of their waists. This might have been a slight detail, but it should have been edited out.

The story does reach a predictable ending, but one that I think deserves an applause for its beautiful execution. 
 
Every faith-based film has an agenda, a lesson, a message, a moral. But what makes it worth seeing is how creatively packaged the output is. Alex and Stephen Kendrick’s Overcomer brings to life an ‘agenda’ that lifts your spirit, makes you well invested in the success of its main acts, gives you a renewed sense of your true identity, while also and more importantly, thoroughly entertaining you.

This is Art, meaningfully put to use. And this is why you should see Overcomer, if you haven’t yet.

Official website: https://www.overcomermovie.com/