I went to see this film today out of curiosity. I figured that I was going to have a good laugh at it when I read that Gavin MacLeod was the star of it. I didn't think I could take him seriously in a role like this because I always think of him as Captain Stubing on The Love Boat. MacLeod became a born again Christian in real life and making this film was a real labor of love for him. I came to scorn and left to rejoice. I had a very pleasant surprise because this is a beautiful film. Its so sad that it wont even be a footnote in the 2009 box office history. People who are not as brilliant as I am will make fun of it and miss its very important message. It has only limited release and when I went to see it, I was the ONLY one in the whole theatre. It is a real pleasure seeing a film like this because Hollywood has long had a jaded attitude about religion. In other words, whenever they make a film about it they always show the religious person as crazy, corrupt or both. Thinking back over the years, I can only name The Passion Of The Christ as a film that showed religion in a favorable way. People may condemn this film for being preachy, but I loved it. It had such a powerful message and Gavin MacLeod gave an awesome performance. He brought Jonathan Sperry to life and you loved this wonderful old man who had such love in his heart. I can think of no other actor who could have done such a brilliant job and I say give Gavin MacLeod the Oscar! Sadly this will never happen. I also wanted to praise the young actors in the film, they all did a great job even the one playing Nick the bully. I loved the part where Jonathan reached Nick and made him realize the cause of his meaness. I wanted to particularly praise a young actor named Jansen Panettine who played Justin the lead kid. He is a real acting prodigy and I predict a great future for this young man! I kept wondering when he was going to work up the nerve to ask that girl for a date and I was angry at that other waitress for throwing his note away. Watching the three boys and the typical kid problems they went thru sort of reminded me of Stand By Me. I just loved everything about this film from the way they faithfully created the "look" of the seventies (when people only tipped fifty cents!) to the beautiful musical score, the powerful message and the awesome work of everyone involved. If I had my way, this film would have gotten top billing everywhere. SPOILER ALERT, I knew that Mister Sperry would die in the end of the film and Jansen Panettine did a great job showing the grief this boy feels over his beloved friends death. I know that people may mock me for saying this but I feel I am a better person for seeing this film.
Review of The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry
