Warning: Languid ‘Awakening’ may induce sleep
Faith-based movies are inherently didactic. But rarely are they as shamelessly corny as “A Great Awakening,” the fire and brimstone version of how Benjamin Franklin befriended and carried the water for evangelist George Whitefield in the mid-1700s.
Everything about it is Yankee Doodle macaroni with cheese, from the tacky wigs to the wild emoting. And don’t get me started on how so much of Ben’s dialogue consists of famous quips lifted straight out of his Poor Richard’s Almanac. And mark my words, there will be kites! And who knew Whitefield was at Ben’s side during that electrifying discovery? It’s almost as astonishing as Ben (portrayed by the portly John Paul Sneed) looking almost exactly the same in 1787 as he did in 1739. Either Ben was a very old-looking 33 or a very spry polymath of 81.
I know this Sight & Sound production was burdened by a very minuscule budget, but come on. Same with the ridiculous-looking prop Jonathan Blair wears to approximate Whitefield’s strabismus, or “lazy eye.” It looks creepy and is somewhat distracting. The movie also conveniently forgets to mention that Whitefield was a notorious advocate for slavery. Not quite the paragon he’s painted to be in this hagiographic portrait. But Blair certainly captures Whitefield’s gift for theatrics, a skill he learned as a child actor back in England.
It was that stage training that is credited with Whitefield’s unique ability to project his voice hundreds of feet into the massive throngs of Philadelphians, who suddenly found a reason to forget their petty differences to unite under the Great Awakening banner in the run up to the Revolutionary War. Impressive, but non-Christians may disagree with the film’s message that there is no freedom without Jesus’ input.
They can also legitimately argue that the tenets of “The Great Awakening” are contributing mightily to the current political divides eroding our democracy. The movie makes no attempts to hide its controversial stance on the separation of church and state. And how you feel about that may greatly influence whether you choose to see it.
Thankfully, it doesn’t hit you over the head. Nor does it provide much of a history lesson beyond what you learned in high school, sans the religious overtones. And to its credit, “The Great Awakening” is honest and up front about its mission to change minds and hearts by introducing the man who had a major hand in the “born again” movement that still thrives today, nearly 300 years on.
I admired the message, but not the stagey way it’s presented by director Joshua Enck, working from a script by Enck, Blair and Jeff Bender. It plays like a cross between an Afterschool Special and one of those clunky Bill O’Reilly “Killing” productions on basic cable. But you can’t argue with the timing, hitting theaters over Easter weekend. It’s not great, but it will do if you’re a member of the choir it’s preaching to. All others might want to wait until it comes to streaming, if not, skip it altogether.
Movie review
A Great Awakening
Rated: PG-13 for brief violence
Cast: Jonathan Blair and John Paul Sneed
Director: Joshua Enck
Writers: Jeff Bender, Joshua Enck and Jonathan Blair
Runtime: 129 minutes
Where: In theaters April 3
Grade: C-
