For such movies to work it is absolutely essential that the main character believably goes through the change for believable reasons, especially when it's based on a real life person. Here, it's just the same old boorish character mouthing words in different costumes. Just laughable.
Despite his attempts, Mark Wahlberg is a total miscast. He just comes across as an unlikeable flip flopping petulant motor-mouth and his 'conversion' is outright contrived and lacks any meaningful motivation. The actress that played the woman that led him to go to church was not only a miscast but a self-conscious poor actress who has no chemistry whatsoever with Mark's character. Their scenes together are just good examples of embarrassingly bad acting jobs.
Add to that, other priests are just portrayed as typical fools who seem to just conveniently cave in to motormouth Stu.
Dialogues and scenes are clunky and cliche ridden. Not funny, not dramatic, not inspiring. Just bad school play stuff.
Only saving grace is Mel Gibson's believable performance as the red-neck dad ... if only his lines were better written.
Despite his attempts, Mark Wahlberg is a total miscast. He just comes across as an unlikeable flip flopping petulant motor-mouth and his 'conversion' is outright contrived and lacks any meaningful motivation. The actress that played the woman that led him to go to church was not only a miscast but a self-conscious poor actress who has no chemistry whatsoever with Mark's character. Their scenes together are just good examples of embarrassingly bad acting jobs.
Add to that, other priests are just portrayed as typical fools who seem to just conveniently cave in to motormouth Stu.
Dialogues and scenes are clunky and cliche ridden. Not funny, not dramatic, not inspiring. Just bad school play stuff.
Only saving grace is Mel Gibson's believable performance as the red-neck dad ... if only his lines were better written.