Movie Review: I Still Believe

This was movie #6/20 (#16 overall) that I watched for my 20 for 2020 Challenge. This movie was released in theaters on March 13, 2020.

There are a couple of different reasons why I decided to watch this movie. I thought it would be a good cheesy, romantic, guilty pleasure kind of movie. I also really like KJ Apa (because of Riverdale). And also my options are pretty limited for 2020 movie releases, but I thought this one looked like it would be decent.

I really didn't like it. Even if I don't like something, I still like to be as positive and respectful as possible with my reviews. I don't want to rip apart someone's art, but at the same time I do want to express my opinion so people know whether they should spend their time and money on it, and I think it's better for the art form in the end for these movies to be critiqued so that everyone can learn and become better with their art. This movie is based on a true story, so I can't be as critical as I usually would be for a movie like this. Some things are probably fictionalized or exaggerated, but it's hard to tell and I don't want to assume or call out something that might have happened in real life (and something with such a tragic story). But so this is my disclaimer that any criticism I have with the film has to do with the way it was told. My critiques have nothing to do with Jeremy Camp himself or his story.

One thing that I didn't like about the movie was that it wasn't exactly what I expected. From the trailers I thought it would focus later on in their relationship with some flashbacks etc. But the movie was completely linear and told the story of their relationship from the beginning. I think there was definitely a lot of extra, unnecessary, repetitive material in there. I just don't think the story was told in the most selective way that it could have been. At the same time I also don't think that the movie told the story of their relationship and bond as well as it could have been told. I don't doubt that they were in love and were soulmates, but I just didn't feel emotionally connected to the story because instead of showing all the emotional, impactful moments of their relationship, I feel like the movie focused on showing montages of light, bubbly moments instead. In addition to these unnecessary montage type moments, I think a lot of extra time was spent on minor fights, an unnecessary subplot with Jean-Luc, how they met and so on. I know all of these plot points probably felt very important to Jeremy Camp, and he wanted every little plot point to be portrayed, but it needed to be whittled down to the most important parts to be an effective movie. Out of everything that I was looking forward to getting from the movie, I thought the romance would have the most potential to hook me. But it unfortunately wasn't exactly effective for me in the end. Also going back to how I don't think the story was told in the most selective and efficient way, it was kind of weird to me how they would only show moments with the two of them. For the most part, there weren't scenes of one of them by themselves, or with friends, or without the main characters and with just the parents or just with outside people. It was just scene after another of the two main characters' different encounters. It would be like one scene: we're going on this date, end scene. Next scene: run into each other on campus, end scene. Next scene: Go out on another date, end scene.

I'm a big music and musicals fan, so it should have been a plus for me that this was kind of a musical. They sang a few diagetic songs. Unfortunately was not really a big fan of the songs. I thought they were a little bland and boring. I liked the last song a little better than the others, and ended up listening to it a couple of times after the movie was over. I do really like "I Still Believe" now, but that's about it. Also the soundtrack seemed kind of all over the place. Some of the songs used did not fit the tone of the scene/movie at all in my opinion (I'm specifically referring to songs not exclusive to this movie or Jeremy Camp, such as "Sweet Disposition" and "Can't Help Falling In Love").

I did really like KJ Apa in it. I think he did a great job. He definitely was the high point of the movie for me. I also have to admit that I felt very wholesome, fulfilled and hopeful after watching the movie.

I'd give the movie a 4/10. Have you watched this movie? I'd love to hear your thoughts down below.