This Sunday, the UP Network will premiere Corbin Bernsen’s romantic faith-based comedy, Christian Mingle: The Movie. Despite the terrible title, the movie is pretty good and may surprise a few people. The the flick does feature a few Christian Mingle commercials, it is unclear why the film is dedicated to the Christian dating service.
Probably best known for his role on NBC’s LA Law so many years agao, Bernsen wrote and directed the flick which stars Lacey Chabert (FOX’s Party of Five) as Gweneth Hayden, a successful marketing professional who is unhappy with her dating life and on a whim, decides to post an ad on the famed dating website, even though she is not a Christian. To prepare for her date, she purchases a “Christianity for Dummies” book.
In a quiet little coffee shop, Gweneth meets Paul Wood (Jonathan Patrick Moore) who is the complete opposite of Gweneth. He likes to say words like “golly” and trying sushi for the first time is a major event. He attends a pristine white church with his folks Bill and Lacie (David Keith and Morgan Fairchild) and childhood friend, Kelly (Jill Saunders) who his mother not-so-secretly would like to pair him up with. Mom is no dummy. She can tell that there is something a little off with her son’s new girlfriend. For Paul though, love is blind.
Gweneth works for Douglas McCarver (Stephen Tobolowsky) who likes to keep his office ship shape – litterally. Her co-worker and confidant Pam (Saidah Arrika Ekulona) helps Gweneth manage through the company’s latest baldness cure promotion by infomercial king, Donny De Bona (John O’Hurley), which is just as phony as Gwen’s recent conversion.
The Mingle movie has a slow pace and some of the humor falls flat, but where the story is weak, Chabert and Moore make up with a fun on-screen chemistry. Unlike other faith-based films, the movie isn’t content enough with Gweneth finding her way. It actually gets a little preachy telling her that there is more to being a Chirstian than just acting like one.
The film does a good job of gently teasing the behavior of some Christians. The family enjoys dining at the “Steak and Cake” restaurant after church and each of them have their own fuzzy nicknames. None of the characters are perfect and Paul’s mother is seen as being judgmental and yet, still has a good heart. Is the story realistic? Not really, but it is a romantic comedy after all. And it is one that you won’t have to take a cold shower after watching either. To get a better idea of the content of the movie, watch a clip from the movie here.
Christian Mingle: the Movie airs Sunday, February 8th at 7:00 p.m. on the UP network.