Average Joe is one of the weirdest faith-based films I’ve seen in recent memory. Most of them are pretty straightforward,  but this one takes some shots at the end zone. That’s an apt analogy because this is also a football movie. They fall a little bit short, but I applaud the effort in trying to do something bold and different. 

This film depicts the story of a man played by (Eric Close. He had a youth of struggle and turmoil. He didn’t like school and he didn’t get along with his parents so he ended up in various boys’ homes. In the process, he meets a girl he likes but things don’t work out in their favor. Eventually, all of his rebellious ways led him to join the Marines where he developed a sense of pride and belonging he didn’t have as a youth. He also discovered a belief in a higher power. When he reluctantly becomes a football coach he uses his belief in God in what he thought was a positive way. He prayed at the fifty-yard line after the games. This caused him more problems than he thought it would, but this became another obstacle he would have to overcome in his life.

Aforementioned I said the director chose to do some unusual things in this movie to get its story across. The first is he used a framing device of the two main characters sitting on a couch telling the story of their lives. The second is the implementation of the fourth wall breaking as a way to add some levity to this story. These two things gave the story a freshness other faith-based films don’t have. I got a few laughs from these aspects of the film.

The story moves quite quickly along which doesn’t allow for it to be observed by the viewers watching. The quickness of the story, especially the early portions of the main character’s origin, was not developed as much. Things were rushed until the end when they slowed down to show the main part of the film. The case about the coach praying on the field. There was definitely a disjointed nature of the story.

The main actors who played the Coach and his wife, Close, and Amy Acker, had pretty good chemistry. They had some very dramatic scenes within the main context of the film, but it was the interactions during the framing device scenes and one in particular in a fourth-wall-breaking scene that I was enjoying most. The director’s style that he was going for rolled over into the acting of his main characters. These interactions were the best part of the movie.

This film has a good message about free speech and in turn the right to pray. I think people should have the right to pray as part of free speech. As long as it’s not in a negative connotation.  Praying in the center of a football field after the game isn’t a negative thing. It’s showing you love of a greater power and showing you have an appreciation for your own life and the things you have in life. More people should pray in this form instead of using negative words or hiding behind computers to spew their vitriol. 

Average Joe is a good movie with a good message. It has two good performances from its main stars. The editing of the story left something to be desired though. The film moved a little too fast at the beginning and slowed down at the end. It needed to be longer to tell the origin story part of the movie a little better. This wasn’t a bad faith-based film, but it wasn’t great either. The director could have made some better choices though in the end.

2 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen