FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
SAINT RALPH
Ralph, a scrappy fourteen-year-old, takes to heart being told it would take a
miracle to draw his mother out of her coma. When Father Hibbert tells him it
would be miracle if he won the Boston Marathon, Ralph connects the dots
and concocts an unwieldy plan to her. Luckily for him, Father
Hibbert happens to be Canada's best Olympic runner who only stopped running
because he was told clergymen could not also be athletes.
Instead of explaining what happens next, let me ask you. Do you think Ralph
and Father Hibbert reach spiritual growth and self-awareness by believing in
their abilities and acting from their faith? And do you think Ralph's mother
wakes up from her hospital bed in this whimsical Christian coming-of-age
story? I assure you, this plot, set in the 1950s, is not ingenious or startling. But what may
actually surprise you is that this movie triumphs over triteness that a
shameful plot like this would normally guarantee. By teetering between
tearjerker, Bildungsroman, and unpredictable comedy, this jaunty
Canadian family flick is actually enjoyable - and rather funny.
But the tonal fence-straddling detracts from any real emotional depth other
than the film's inevitable closing pay-off. Writer/director Michael McGowan
strays too far into the absurd to root emotional links in his characters,
relying instead on their built-in (if formulaic) charisma and the excellent
acting that makes sure these lighthearted characters are human when the
screenwriting falls short. Were it not for the earnest twitchiness of Adam
Butcher (Ralph) and Campbell Scott (Father Hibbert), the suitably
over-the-top love interest Tamara Hope, and the affectionately stern
solidity of Gordon Pinsett (the tyrannical superintendent, Father
Fitzpatrick), Saint Ralph would be left only with its moral messages that
drop at the subtle velocity of asteroids and plot points that even the deaf
can hear as tinny and hollow. Some heavy-handed music by Andrew Lockington
aside, Saint Ralph avoids as many clichés as it stumbles into while still
managing to break even. Zachary Jones
|