A washed-up former child star, forced to do community service at a local megachurch, pretends to be a Christian to land the part of Jesus in their annual Passion Play, only to discover that the most important role of his life is far from Hollywood.
The end result merits a paraphrase of the memorable appraisal by Miss Jean Brodie: For those who like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they probably will like.
Like so many movies designed for believers first and ordinary sinners second, if at all, Gavin Stone has trouble approximating the sensibility of actual entertainment and is particularly deadly as a comedy.
For the faithful, the reasonably breezy fish-out-of-water elements should sufficiently liven up the standard tropes...But in the end, BH Tilt is right: this is a targeted project, and isn't really for anybody else.
A portrayal we haven't often seen before, and marks a new direction for films targeted at that audience. It may even draw a new believer or two, but there's still a long way to go to totally nail the faith-based comedy genre.
