Synopsis:
The true life story of Christian music mega star Jeremy Camp. Jeremy’s remarkable journey of love and loss proves there is always hope in the midst of tragedy and that faith tested is the only faith worth sharing.
The charm of Camp’s smile wears off rather quickly in this story that would’ve been better suited for a podcast. I Still Believe, the inspirational faith-based true story fails to relay the complete message it set out to tell. Instead, I saw a story of manipulation and betrayal. On this occasion, the story itself is increasingly better than the movie. To me, seeing the story on screen in detail displayed that the love connection starts with a little manipulative steering using faith.
Huge turnoff. I’m not a religious person but I respect it, however, if someone told me that God meant for them to carjack me… I call bullshit. Especially when the person stealing your car is your friend. Don’t get wrong, it has its bright spots despite all of the laughable corny moments. There are some great messages about making good music, realizing and accepting your purpose, and unwavering faith. The first half of the movie feels like a CW drama but the second half is filled with real emotion that elicits tears. The pickle jar scene is the best scene of the movie as well as the best acted. Since the film also focuses on Jeremy Camp’s early music beginnings, there is a good amount of songs that are performed. While sonically pleasing, the songs are forgettable, unfortunately. If you’re worried about the movie being overly cheesy, you’d be right.
If you’re worried it being overly Christian, you’d be wrong. The movie is able to intertwine faith in a way that’s not aggressive. If you can overlook its weird pace, subpar acting from its star, and all of its cheese, I Still Believe can be enjoyed because of the perfect performance by Britt Robertson. Overall, it’s an easy watch and if you’re itching for a cry, look no further. Ultimately, I left the theater thinking that Jean-Luc is either dying on the inside or he’s plotting revenge.
Plot & Pace
The film follows a very confident and determined Jeremy Camp as he enters college. While there he meets his idol and locks eyes with a girl that he is deeply infatuated with. Things become increasingly complicated when he finds out that the girl he is after isn’t exactly single. Soon after, the faith of everyone involved is tested when one of them finds out they have cancer. While simultaneously gaining music popularity and falling in love, Jeremy is finding out who he really is and what matters to him. The pacing of the movie is a bit all over the place. Too fast when it should slow down as well as not being slow enough even in the slow parts. It leads to us not getting enough answers to questions we have. It’s not sure if it wants to be a music-based biopic or a faith-based love story. It could be both but if that’s the case it never fully focused on either.
Characters & Chemistry
This movie is one hundred percent carried and held together by Melissa (Britt Robertson). She is not only the shining light but at times the only light. Melissa is the emotion, drive, and heart of the story. She steals every scene and really flexed her acting chops when it came to the chemistry with her and K.J. Apa who plays Jeremy Camp. Apa was able to portray Camp as a confident go-getter who is determined to make it in music and get the girl but when it came to emotional scenes, he fell short. Some of his scenes felt extremely forced, luckily he had Robertson to save him. Worst fake crying I’ve seen in a very long time. He only thrived in the lighthearted scenes in the first act.
I Still Believe releases in theaters on March 13th. Enjoy the movie and wash your hands.
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1h 55m
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Senior Critic. Observing the human race since 1988.
