By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I’m delving into some of the PURE FLIX catalog and this was one that stood out. David A.R. White and Jeff Fahey made it seem like it was a sure bet. Then I saw Victoria Jackson’s name. There was a time when I loved Victoria Jackson. I was a kid, she was on SNL and she sang “I am not a bimbo.” Then, I saw her in CASUAL SEX and I loved her even more. She held her own with LEA THOMPSON and brought a comedic element. Her voice was sweet, innocent and fun.
Then years later, I saw her on FOX NEWS and it was just sad. She was gay-bashing and singing an awful song about the president which made me cringe and long for the old spunky out-there Victoria Jackson instead of the irritatingly bat-shit crazy Jackson. Now, even her voice irks me.
Despite her presence, I still went all in and watched MARRIAGE RETREAT in its entirety. It’s no GOD’S NOT DEAD or DO YOU BELIEVE? but it has its moments.
The movie follows three couples on the brink of divorce, all of which are friends and attend the same church. First there’s Mark (David A.R.White) and Claire Bowman (Andrea Logan White). The real-life married couple had no issue in the chemistry factor and both are great actors so their story was an interesting one to follow. Mark didn’t want to have children. His father was an abusive jerk who left both mental and physical scarring. He feared that his father’s insanity would carry over if he had kids. Claire desperately wanted to have children and was actually pregnant. Though her female friends knew, she hadn’t yet disclosed the information to Mark. His hesitation was so bad that it actually caused her to seek out divorce attorneys.
The second couple Bobby (Tommy Blaze) and Melody Blaze (Caroline Choi) are facing difficulties because Bobby’s online gambling has gotten out of control. He once was huge in flipping houses until the market went to pieces so he jumped onto playing poker online with the result generally being him losing.
Every time I see Tommy Blaze, I think that’s the guy who beat RUMPELSTILTSKIN (1995) in the movie of the same name. So, when Melody gets on Bobby’s case, I’m like, “give the guy a break, he probably has PTSD from killing a monster from Germany. The poor guy is self-medicating with gambling. Get him to a psychiatrist!
The last couple ready to crumble is Donna (Anna Zielinski) and James Harlow (Matthew Florida). Donna is insecure because her husband is a popular soap opera actor who has many female fans. To feel in control she monitors everything which causes countless fights. She’s also 9 months pregnant.
One Sunday, Craig (Jeff Fahey) and Katrina Sullivan (Victoria Jackson) attend their church and convince the three couples to go on a Marriage Retreat. The men are convinced that the retreat will convince their wives that they should be more submissive and the women believe it will make the men more understanding. Both Mark and Claire use the Bible as the source for what they assume will be taught at the retreat.
Once there, Katrina takes the cellphones away and advises them that there is no internet allowed. All of them are momentarily upset but then move on. They have meetings with Craig to talk about their different issues. One thing he said to Bobby definitely resonated with me. Bobby quoted the Bible to defend his actions and Craig cut him off stating that he cannot quote the Bible unless he follows it entirely. That is certainly one of my hangups with some steadfast Christians. They quote certain lines from the scripture that support their cause and then ignore others. For example, someone who sleeps with any woman ready to go turns around and uses the Bible to excuse homophobia or a man who beats his children defends his actions with “spare the rod, spoil the child” yet cheats on his wife and is a drunkard.
I was actually surprised that the film brought up this type of hypocrisy and I applaud it.
The three couples learn different ways to reconnect yet all using Christian mechanisms, the love of God and putting the Lord first, to do so.
In all honesty, Jackson wasn’t as annoying as I expected. In this character she did fine. Her voice does make me wince a bit, but she’s a character actress and that’s what she does. I also can’t completely hate her for her belief system because I don’t think she’s playing with a full deck. I’m not trying to be mean but for this review I re-watched her awful SHOWBIZ interview and she was all over the place and unable to respond to direct questions.
If I’m wrong and she was just flustered then I disagree with the way she put it across and the approach she used. Her level of homophobia could lead to teenage suicide and giving “Christian” teens the okay to beat the hell out of gay teens. I never watched GLEE. It was never aimed at my demographic and I was busy watching COMMUNITY. Also, her hatred for Muslims and her meshing the entire faith into a stereotype is unsettling. She actually reminded me of the Bobby character who defends her spewing hatred on social media and TV with passages from the Bible.
As for her fear of not being able to have TV for her daughter to watch, she should be happy now that PURE FLIX is available.
All of that said, I would recommend this film. It’s a feel-good movie with a happy ending. It’s definitely a good watch if you’re feeling down or had a bad day. Without doubt, it’s a more pointed film than WHAT IF? or GOD’S NOT DEAD where there are less comedic moments and more testimonial style delivery. Sort of a “if you follow xyz…then your marriage will be healed.”
I honestly wish more Christians and even more-so Christian filmmakers would follow David A.R. White’s footsteps as his performances, writing and delivery always seem less judgmental and more understanding. He’s very inclusive and focuses on positivity rather than negativity or straight-out damnation.
The entire cast did a great job. It was awesome seeing Reginald VelJohnson again. He’s just fantastic and was underutilized in FAMILY MATTERS. He is far more than someone just yelling “URKEL!” (cue laugh-track). He’s got finesse and style to his acting. He can captivate and keep the attention of the viewer just by being in the room. Here, he was a sincere reverend and I wished he had more airtime. As many actors seem to do more than one movie with David A.R. White, fingers crossed that I’ll see a few more with Mr. VelJohnson because he always makes a movie worth watching. In my opinion, he was the best part of DIE HARD (1988) and DIE HARDER (1990).
Scared Stiff Rating: 6.5/10
