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PLOT: The true story of Stuart Long (Mark Wahlberg), a former two-bit boxer and wannabe actor who found an unlikely calling as a priest, all the while fighting a deadly condition that slowly destroyed all of the muscles in his body.
REVIEW: Father Stu is a passion project for star Mark Wahlberg, who reportedly invested millions of his own dollars in the movie and gained thirty pounds in a matter of weeks to play the part. A practicing Catholic, Father Stu’s plight must have struck a personal note for Wahlberg, as at heart, it’s a redemptive story. Long is portrayed as an alcoholic with a short fuse who’s eventually able to overcome his demons and inspire others, which is a universal enough premise that you don’t necessarily have to be religious to appreciate the film. While heavy on Catholic themes and a Sony release, it’s notably not being distributed by their faith-based shingle Affirm. Father Stu is probably way too racy for a more conservative Christian audience.
However, the fact that it’s R-rated and peppered with some grit may actually help it cross over to the mainstream, and to be sure, it’s not trying to convert its audience by being too preachy. Instead, it’s simply telling a direct, inspiring story that faith just happens to be a big part of. It’s a solid debut for writer-director Rosalind Ross, who delivers one of Wahlberg’s better recent vehicles, helped along by a couple of really committed performances by its leads.
Again, Wahlberg puts a lot of himself into the part, and his manic energy is perfect for a character like Stu, who’s compared to a “dog going after a bone” when he gets an idea into his head. He comes to Catholicism cynically, only going along with it because he falls in love with a devout church girl (the likeable Terese Ruiz – who holds her own), and she won’t date him unless he’s Catholic.
Stu’s presented as a likeable but flawed guy. His notion of becoming a priest happens after he has a vision of the Virgin Mary following a car wreck, but the movie never really comes out and tells you that this vision is more than a hallucination. I’d say the film is “faith-driven” rather than “faith-based” because it allows you to make up your own mind about Stu’s conversion and whether or not you agree with his reasons.
In many ways, it’s reminiscent of the approach co-star Mel Gibson took with Hacksaw Ridge, in that his hero’s religious beliefs were celebrated yet not everyone in the film was so easily won over. Intriguingly, Gibson himself is the skeptic in this, as Stu’s alcoholic, atheist dad, who’s prone to waving a gun around at the slightest provocation, but, being that Gibson plays him, has a glimmer of redemption left in him.
In recent years, Gibson’s been stuck in a neverending series of DTV roles, but he’s fully engaged and challenged by the material here (he’s also Ross’s off-screen partner). It’s nice to see Gibson get an opportunity to deliver the kind of performance he’s capable of, and he doesn’t smooth out his character’s rough edges at all (both Gibson and Wahlberg probably set a career record in terms of F-bombs dropped). Jacki Weaver is also quite good as Stu’s skeptical but loving mother, who never quite buys into the priesthood idea but supports him regardless. It’s also fun seeing the great Malcolm McDowell show up in a mainstream film as a Monsignor won over by Stu’s persistence.
In the end, Father Stu‘s subject matter may put off a chunk of the audience. This is the challenge when making a movie that’s about faith. Still, speaking as a fairly non-religious person who hasn’t been in church for a couple of decades, I found Father Stu to be an enjoyable watch with two pretty perfect performances from Wahlberg and Gibson, both of whom are at their best here. It’s well-worth checking out.
7
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