Paul's Promise

 

Paul's Promise

Starring Ryan O'Quinn, Linda Purl, Shari Rigby, Josef Cannon

Directed by Matthew Reithmayr

The world of Christian cinema is littered with cheesy, over-the-top, as subtle as a sledgehammer preachy films that focus on someone getting saved and accepting Jesus Christ in their heart by any means necessary. The majority of these films focus on some loved one who's a devout Christian (a mother, a spouse, a child, etc.) who fervently prays and who's complete dialogue is about turning their "unsaved" loved one to the light of God. This person slowly undergoes a metamorphosis where they were once far away from God but after a bunch of seemingly random events hit them from left and right, they realize they have nowhere else to turn to but God. "Paul's Promise" is one such film, an overly preachy, overly manipulative film that tells the supposed true story of Paul Holderfield, who goes from an unbelieving fireman living in the segregated south in the 1960s to the founder and head preacher of a proudly integrated church.

Paul Holderfield (Ryan O'Quinn) had a rough childhood, having his father being an abusive drunk to his mother Minnie (Linda Purl), who steadfastly stood by her man despite the beatings she got because she never lost hope that he would turn to God - but he never did. Determined not to be like his father, Paul got married, had children of his own, and became a respected firefighter - but he also struggled with the bottle, resulting in numerous fights with his wife Barbara (Shari Rigby). On top of this, his childhood friend Jimmy Lipkin (Josef Cannon) and his family find themselves under attack by racists in their hometown, and Paul disavows any knowledge of them because the other firefighters are racist. Through it all, Minnie never stopped praying that Paul would one day go to church, and when she's struck with terminal cancer, she only has a week or so to live. She's steadfast to stay alive to see Paul go to church, despite his constant misgivings - but when he promises to take her prayer list to church, she's overjoyed, even if he doesn't plan to go through with it.

Christian films rely heavily on world-ending events to turn people to God, most notably the awful Nicolas Cage film "Left Behind" (or the even worse Kirk Cameron-led "Left Behind" series of films), but they also exploit personal tragedies in order to get their point across: you can do nothing without God, and He'll seemingly throw everything including the kitchen sink at you in order to wake you up to that fact. For Paul Holderfield, it's not enough that he once had an African American friend that he turned his back on because of segregation, but he also endured the hardships of having an alcoholic abusive father, and now his mother - whom he loves more than anything, except his love of not setting foot in a church - is dying of cancer. He even says himself in the film that he feels like he's suffocating, which I guess is what the love of God will do - suffocate you until you find you can only breathe in Him.

What's sad is that this isn't how the real God operates, at least not all the time (Job would have a word or two to say about this), but it doesn't matter to Christian cinema: they need to incite fear and powerlessness in its viewers so they have no other choice but to turn to God. For the movie's dramatic effects to take hold, you need something emotionally manipulating to draw tears from the audience to illicit the response you seek to find, and with "Paul's Promise," that comes from his ailing mother. She had a terrible life, but through it all she kept her eyes on God and never lost hope that her wayward son would see the light, and she remained steadfast in her resolve to see it happen before she died of cancer. We all know the outcome, which only serves to not add any stakes in the tale which is already overly stretched to include too many side stories that are never fully developed.

The main side story is the issue of racism and how it affects Paul's worldview. We see through flashbacks that he was once friends with Jimmy, but when a group of youths attack him, Paul disavows knowing him at all. This continues to their adult years, as when Jimmy's house is torched and Paul and his firemen put it out, Paul again claims he doesn't know him in order to save face with his racist firemen buddies. Apart from a few scenes thrown in here and there, this story is never really developed and it's resolved quickly and with very little fanfare, much like the entirety of this "should've been a Lifetime movie" tale.

The performances are as you'd expect, with actors seemingly plucked from a megachurch drama group and shot with the same style cameras that the church thinks is cutting edge, but years outdated. Ryan O'Quinn is your typical non-Christian-turned-Christian who helplessly watches his world crumble before him, and instead of turning to booze and smoking finds solace in God - eventually. Linda Purl's Southern draw is irritating at first and only grows exponentially annoying as it goes on, but at least she seemingly believes in her character's plight to see her son come to Jesus before she dies. Everyone else exists as wallpaper, with about as much effort as background characters in a church play.

To say "Paul's Promise" is underwhelming is an understatement, and it's not even bad enough to be remembered. While it does give an uplifting message, it does so at the cost of subtlety, and instead hits you over the head with their own proverbial Bible. Flatline performances don't add to any sense of urgency, and ultimately it ends with an uplifting message about faith and family, but you won't remember much about it after you leave the theater.

The Score: D