Courageous

Courageous

 “Courageous” is a challenge to “men of courage,” to fathers to measure up to the Biblical definition of the word.

This movie promotes the story of a healthy family by discussing the relationship between fathers and children and husbands and wives.

“Courageous” is often a soapy melodrama, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t moving moments – a eulogy, a father’s desperate efforts to stop a carjacking. And there’s more humor, toying with stereotypes, playing around with miscommunication.

The story drags in a hard-working immigrant, Javier (Robert Amaya), whose complaints to God about losing his job are met in a “The Lord will provide” instant by a mistaken identity hire that brings him into the orbit of the deputies.

It follows four Albany, Georgia (the home of Sherwood Baptist) sheriff’s deputies who are tested by the small city’s gang and drug problems, something the sheriff identifies, through statistics, as being the product of kids growing up in fatherless homes. The deputies — Adam (Alex Kendrick), Nathan (Ken Bevel), Shane (Kevin Downes) and David (Ben Davies) — are close enough friends to talk about their personal lives, with Adam and Nathan pointing to God and the Bible as their guideposts for how to live those lives.

Adam frets over the father he wants to be to his young daughter and aspiring track star teenage son. Nathan is trying to keep his 15 year-old daughter beyond the reach of “saggy pants” older teens who are nothing but trouble to girls that age. Shane and David have different backgrounds and just listen, patiently, to their proselytizing colleagues.

Nathan wonders “where all the good fathers went to,” and demonstrates a good father’s vigilance when he asks a would-be gang banger (Donald Howze) to “explain the purpose of the relationship” the kid wants with his daughter, Jade. Derrick has just asked her to go “hang out,” and is seriously put out. That’s Nathan’s teachable moment with Jade (Taylor Hutcherson).

The message delivered isn’t subtle, with Kendrick delivering toss-away lines that suggest he doesn’t even tolerate “the option” of divorce. But the bigger message might be that the Kendricks haven’t sold out, “gone Hollywood” or watered down their Baptist beliefs based on efforts to reach an audience beyond the faithful. That is what makes them inspiring to legions of other faith-based filmmakers, even though, as this myopic movie demonstrates, it is also holding them back.

 “If he shows no respect for us, he won’t respect you.”

“That’s why it’s very important to see.”