I’m going to really try not to include any spoilers that were not in the promotional trailer because I want you to see this movie. I just watched the film Father Stu, starring Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson an hour ago, and I already want to see it again. And probably again and again in the future. One of the best faith-based films I’ve seen in years. Acting, directing, and pacing were all superb. It had heart. It made me laugh, and it made me cry. I left the theater uplifted. On the Kleenex scale, I give it a three, strictly because of the last scene.
As you may know, Father Stewart Long was a real person. At the beginning of the film we see him as a boxer who goes to California to try to break into acting. He meets a girl he likes who tells him she is Catholic and will only date him if he is baptized, which he does (for not exactly pure reasons, but hey! Isn’t that the way we do a lot of things in life?). We see how living the sacramental life begins to influence him for the better. Then he suffers a serious motorcycle accident that serves as catalyst for a spiritual transformation, changing his sense of purpose in life, and leading him to announce his intention to become a priest. Nobody really supports his decision, but his interior conviction that he is being called by God to the priesthood is unshakeable, despite all the opposition. While in the seminary, his calling is further tested when he is diagnosed with a progressively debilitating and fatal disease. But Stu is not broken. He remains a fighter for the Lord. And he influences all those around him. It’s very inspiring.
The scene where Stu visits his father (played by Gibson), who wakes up face down on the floor of his trailer with an empty bottle and a gun next to his head, gave me flashbacks to a similar scene with a much younger Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon (No fear: no nudity this time, folks) There is some salty language throughout the first half of the film, but that only underscores the authenticity of Stu’s change later. Even as a seminarian, Stu retained his straight forward no-nonsense way of speaking when sharing the gospel that had the ability to meet people where they were without punching down to his audience. In a YouTube interview, I heard that the bishop who gave Stu holy orders claimed that, in the four years of Father Stu’s priesthood, Stu had done more than the bishop himself had done during his priesthood over forty years.
As a writer, I was interested in seeing how the writer/director Rosalind Ross handled showing Stu’s conversion over time, which is something interior and thus difficult to make interesting on the big screen. In essence, it was something like the method popularized by the TV show CSI where they take the tedious process done over time in a montage set to thematic music. So we see Stu jogging with his rosary in hand, gazing over a panorama of nature, praying in various places and postures. Then Stu dialogues with someone about the insights he has gained on life. Not exactly a method easily transferable to a novelist’s craftwork, but within the cinematic arts, it’s art well done.
The only thing that disappointed me was the fact that the music in the trailer, Johnny Cash’s song “The Man Comes Around”, is not in the movie itself. I don’t call this a spoiler exactly. I just think you might as well know now and get over it.
There were only five people in the audience when I viewed Father Stu. I hope attendance picks up over the Easter weekend. But it seems well received from what I can tell. Mark Wahlberg is making the rounds, promoting the film. He called it his love letter to the Lord. In his interview with Cardinal Dolan, the cardinal said Father Stu is like a Saint Dismas (the good thief on the cross) figure, which I found an interesting observation.
Spoiler alert: I’m going to close this commentary quoting Stu’s homily at his ordination, only a small part of which was in the trailer. But it sums up the major message of Stu’s life, and is so moving that it brought me to tears (hence the three tissue rating):
“Our inner nature is being renewed every day. This life, no matter how long it lasts, is a momentary affliction preparing us for eternal glory. We shouldn’t pray for an easy life, but for the strength to endure a difficult one, because the experience of suffering is the fullest expression of God’s love. It’s a chance to be closer to Christ.”
Amen.