Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 05/28/21

Blue Miracle sets sail from Houston. The inspirational nautical drama, which dropped yesterday on Netflix, was blessed with a special send off and screening at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church last night. Star/Houston native Dennis Quaid introduced the movie saying “I personally want to thank Joel and Victoria Osteen for helping make this screening event possible. I’m from Houston myself. I went to First Baptist in Bellaire. That’s where I was baptized and I know the great work that Lakewood does in the community and around the country. So, thank you Joel and thank you Victoria. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to come into your home and share this remarkable film with you. It’s inspired by a true story and I promise you you’re gonna be moved. If you like Blue Miracle, I sure hope your share about it on social media.” 

Also in support of the film Blue Miracle, Reach Records is out with the official soundtrack which is available across all digital platforms. It features 11 original Urbano Latino songs from Reach Records artists including Lecrae, GAWVI, WHATUPRG, 1K Phew and more. The lead single, impacting Spanish radio is one that is familiar to many, GAWVI’s popular hit Fight For Me featuring Lecrae. In honor of the film, the chart-topping artists put a spin on it with Tommy Royale, and made an exclusive revised version specifically for the film.

Reach Records President and co-founder Lecrae expressed his pride in the recording saying “I’m extremely honored to be a part of this project, and I think it’s the first of many more things to come in this space…Julio did a phenomenal job, and I’m really proud of these artists for putting their best first forward and in a season where there is so much going on behind the scenes and they were still able to make this happen.”

In my previous post I spoke with Dennis and his co-star Jimmy Gonzales about the movie. My review follows the synopsis and a segment about the film that ran on EWTN’S The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.

Synopsis: The local boys orphanage Casa Hogar is about to go bankrupt and their director Papa Omar (Jimmy Gonzales) is desperate to find a way to save it. With all avenues closed, he turns to a local fishing tournament with hopes of a miracle. There’s one small problem, neither he nor his boys have ever fished. They team up with the reluctant Captain Wade Malloy (Dennis Quaid), a previous tournament champion, hoping he can steer them to victory. Unbeknownst to them, Molloy is fighting his own challenges. Once out on the open ocean, unexpected friendships are created, strengths are tested, and with the power of faith, we see miracles do come true.

IMHO: Blue Miracle certainly has a lot going for it. It’s a feel-good story that also happens to be true. It has a great message of faith, forgiveness and persevering through life’s storms. And it has two very strong leads in the always-reliable genuine movie star Dennis Quaid and Jimmy Gonzales who, in his first leading film role, demonstrates real presence that holds great promise for his  future career. I just wish I could really climb aboard regarding the story’s execution – because, with all its assets, somehow the movie never manages to achieve much in the way of suspense or a sense of exhilaration.

Given that the plot is set in motion by a hurricane there’s a bit of a missed opportunity for the sort of edge-of-your-seat opening that could really draw viewers immediately in. Instead, even the hurricane was disappointingly plodding and things didn’t speed up much from there.

As the story played out, except for the two leads, there wasn’t much in the way of character development among the orphans. I was also struck that, for a film set in Mexico, there was next to no Spanish spoken. I do get that, for American and other primarily English-speaking audiences, you want the bulk of the dialogue to be in a language they understand but in an era of Minari it just comes off as noticeably unnatural to portray native Mexicans as speaking English even among themselves. We’ve come a long from from Hogan’s Heroes. Audiences have learned to handle subtitles.

While things do perk up toward the end of the movie when Omar struggles with all his might to reel in the fish that could save the orphanage, it’s a little late in the film to actually save it. BTW, if it were up to me, I’d have started the film mid-man vs. fish battle and flashed back to the hurricane from from there. I think that would have been a good way to hook the audience, so to speak.

On the other hand, Raymond Arroyo and his family enjoyed the film. So, maybe you and your family will too.

Blue Miracle was directed by Julio Quintana, written by Quintana and Chris Dowling and produced by Javier Chapa, Darren Moorman, Chris George, Ben Howard and Trey Reynolds.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11