Author: N/A
Genre: Romance, Christian, Drama
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: Unrated (probably PG or a light PG-13)
Age Group: 14+
Summary: Ever since Sarah Taylor told the pastor who destroyed the statue of Jesus, Colton really hasn't wanted to have much to do with her. Understandable, given he was humiliated in front of those he knows and was forced to serve community service hours.
Things went downhill from there. Colton became a bit of a jerk. To his parents, his sister, people at his former church (he really doesn't have any interest in returning), people at his school, Sarah Taylor, and just people in general. He's even got some friends who help him out with this.
Then drunk driving results in a freak accident and Colton dies. Just for a few minutes, but enough to completely change him. Suddenly, he's different.
And nobody's going to believe that. He's Colton, after all.
Word of Warning
- A group of four teen boys draw graffiti on the wall of a church building. When caught, one of them attacks the witness by knocking him over and kicking him a few times (no lasting injuries).
- A teen steals from his sister and from his job. He does return all the money, but that doesn't undo the fact that he did it.
- Teens at a party who are drunk put a cell phone in a blender, completely destroying it.
- Underage drinking and drunkenness. This later results in driving while intoxicated and a crash (more on that later).
- Complete disrespect for parents (this changes).
- Three teens are injured in the car crash (a girl and then the two drunk teens who caused the crash). We see them with neck braces and a few bloody scrapes in the back of the ambulance. One of them dies, then miraculously returns.
- As mentioned in the summary, a teen destroys a statue of Jesus (this is not seen, just mentioned).
- The girl injured in the crash hurts her knee and needs surgery. This is assumed to destroy her hopes for a tennis competition.
- Claims are made that Colton has pretended to be Christian while hitting on a girl. The guy continues, saying soon enough the couple is making out, then the next day Colton has forgotten and moved on.
- A girl is forcefully shoved into a closet and locked in.
- Some pushing and shoving. Random violence (cutting a volley ball with a knife, throwing a Frisbee out of reach, etc). Teasing, mocking, and just general cruelty to fellow teens. All things considered, none of the stuff mentioned is very serious (compared to what we see in other movies).
- For those wondering about the romance genre label, yes, there was a bit of tamed down romance. No kisses, just loyalty, three hugs, and a great friendship salvaged from an originally rough relationship.
- The PG-13 rating would come from the car crash.
It's preachy, cheesy, and clearly made by amateurs in the film business.
But I still watched the entire thing, and I still enjoyed it. For all its faults, it's refreshing and kind of sweet. Colton does his best to change his life around after he dies but he admits that it's not easy (something often neglected in these "life changed" stories). His friends are angry and reject him and he tries to ignore that but clearly has a hard time doing so. And even Sarah has problems (forgiving Colton, trusting him, and facing her own fears).
So yes, it was preachy, cheesy, and done by amateurs (or someone with a very low film budget). But it was also simple, refreshing, and sweet.
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