By now, Sheldon, in Big Bang Theory, is probably the most famous geek from Texas who grew up in a fundamentalist household. Not far behind surely is Donald Miller, only his story is true, or truish…. anyway, in a post modern kind of way. You will perhaps look in vain to find Blue like Jazz in the theaters, and here in Lexington it only showed up a week late at the Kentucky Theater. Never mind, it is worth the wait.
This is not your ordinary Christian movie. It’s not one that will warm the cockles of Southern Baptist movie producers who like doing testosterone driven films with safe sweet messages. This film like Aslan is not safe, for its scenario is a ‘there and back again’ scenario that is every conservative momma’s nightmare— conservative Christian kid leaves home and goes to uber-pagan college at the other end of the religious and political spectrum (Reed College in Portland)…… and finds… a more real vision of a perfect Christ served by very imperfect Christians.
The real challenge for a movie like this is that Don Miller is a wordsmith, and so much of the ethos and effect of the book comes from the way Don wields words, but movies are largely about showing, not telling, and that has a telling effect producing a real difference between book and film. I prefer the book, but the movie is very well done and affective and effective in its own way. It deserves to be evaluated on its own merits.
The movie is an hour and forty-seven minutes long but this is sufficient to develop the major themes Don addresses– coming of age, learning to improvise (like in jazz— Coltrane’s famous A Love Supreme comes up for repeated mention), looking for meaning in life, trying to learn to relate to the opposite sex, dealing with weird parents, and appropriating one’s faith for one’s self.
There are essentially two main characters—- Don, and the girl he meets at Reed, Penny , oh yes, and the Pope of Reed College (and therein lies a tale in itself that Freud would have a field day with). Probably you will not recognize any of the actors (the two leads are played by Marshall Allman and Claire Holt), but it really doesn’t matter because what matters is the story, and the themes it probes, often very effectively.
The movie gets a PG-13 rating due to some language, but there is no violence or nudity in the film, and it is certainly appropriate to watch this film with your teenagers…. indeed I would commend it to you. Some of the conservative reviewers have suggested that’s not a great idea as the film will give your progeny some bad ideas or lead them down the garden path. I disagree with that assessment. In the Internet age it is quite impossible to totally shelter one’s children from the variables and themes this movie explores in regard to teens. Chances are, these possibilities have long since crossed the threshold of your children’s minds. Wouldn’t it be better to watch the film and have a reasonable conversation about these sorts of things?
Some will be upset at the way some conservative Baptists are caricatured in this film. I’m afraid I have seen enough in various conservative Protestant Churches (not just Baptists) to know that its not entirely a caricature, not like say Ricky Bobby’s dinner table scene in Talladega Nights. Frankly, Christians need to lighten up and be able to laugh at themselves sometimes. We have plenty of foibles worth laughing at. So, go see this film. Pay close attention to the last few scenes. Then ask yourself, what should Christians be seeking forgiveness for from an unsuspecting world? And see the whole film in light of its resolution.
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