Ding! Ding! In this corner, coming in at 125 minutes, is the champion, the controversial and polarizing "Fifty Shades of Greyyyyy"! And in this corner, the challenger, coming in at 115 minutes, is the little-known, but surprising "Ollllllld Fashioned"! Who will win the weekennnnnd box officcccce?? Okay, that wasn't much of a fight. The score was 82 to 1 (millions of dollars, according to Box Office Mojo), but at least there was a fight. At least the juggernaut of "Fifty Shades" had an opponent. Regardless of how you personally feel about either film, it was undeniably clever counterprogramming to set the wide release date for "Old Fashioned" (PG-13, 1:55) the same weekend as the steamy-kinky "Fifty Shades of Grey". Two diametrically opposed views of modern relationships. No middle ground here. But that seems about right for the times in which we live. Now, which is the better MOVIE for our times? Well, I gave my opinion on "Fifty Shades" in another review. The rest of this review is going to be all "Old Fashioned".
Boy meets girl. Boy refuses to be alone with girl. Girl doesn't understand. Boy explains his religious convictions and relationship rules, at the risk of driving girl away. It's a story as old as time. It really is. That's the whole point. "Old Fashioned" longs for a time when men and women followed the Bible's rules for relationships as energetically as they ignore them now and aims to show how an old fashioned relationship (taking things slow, establishing firm boundaries, etc.) can still work today. At least, that's the idea behind this buttoned-up, but touching romance.
Clay (Rik Swartzwelder, who also wrote and directed the film) is a 30-something bachelor running an antiques store named "Old Fashioned" in what looks like a typical small southern town. He rents the small furnished apartment above his store to a free-spirited single gal who cruised into town on fumes, with her cat and all her earthly belongings in her car, and decided to stay – at least for a while. You see, Amber (Elizabeth Roberts, an adorable combination of Marisa Tomei and Mary-Louise Parker) lets her car's gas gauge decide where she's going to live next – until she gets antsy and uses the jar of cash on top of her refrigerator as gas money to roll on down the highway. Amber gets a job at the local flower shop and isn't looking to get into a relationship, but she's intrigued by the seemingly antiquated relationship ideas of her new landlord. Since he doesn't believe in dating, she breaks things in her apartment so he has to come upstairs to make the necessary repairs. One of Clay's many relationship rules is not to be alone with a woman who is not his wife, so Amber stands outside her apartment and engages him in conversation through the screen door.
Soon, Clay cannot deny that he is attracted to the pretty Amber with her compassion, playfulness and love of life, while she finds herself attracted to the handsome and gentlemanly Clay. Of course, all of his rules make a courtship challenging, but she thinks he's worth the effort. They get together for a variety of wholesome activities and ask each other questions from a relationship workbook to see how compatible they are. Amber adapts to Clay's rules, but the sternness of his demeanor and the strictness of his world view leave her feeling unappreciated and undervalued. It seems that Clay is working so hard at being good for God that, without realizing it, he has become self-centered and lacking in the compassion that Christians regard as crucial to their faith. Clay's great aunt Zella (Dorothy Silver) helps him see that, but is it too late? Can Clay find a way to make it work with Amber without sacrificing his principles? No spoilers here. If you want to know what happens, you'll have to see the movie.
Of course, the question remains whether the movie is worth seeing. The performances and the production values are far superior to other faith-based movies I've seen over the years. The film portrays the two main characters as real people, who have made choices that they regret and have pasts that they wish they could change. They just go about it differently. By way of contrast, we also see the relationship of Clay's college buddy David (LeJon Woods) who is "living in sin" with his long-time girlfriend with whom he is raising their young daughter. We also meet their other college buddy, Brad (Tyler Hollinger), who is a womanizing shock radio disc jockey and whose attitudes are the exact opposite of Clay's.
The film can get preachy at times (mainly while Clay is explaining the way he lives his life), but the experience of conducting an old fashioned courtship is mainly shown as a worthy goal in and of itself, not necessarily dependent on a strong religious faith. That may sound nice, but that's where the story starts to stumble. I've never known anyone to take such a restrictive attitude towards relationships without a strong faith-based motivation. That calls into question the plot's realism. Besides that, strict Christians like Clay don't believe they should marry someone who doesn't share their commitment to Christ, but Clay seems much more interested in Amber's behavior than the compatibility of their spiritual beliefs. Then, while David's relationship is shown to be a successful one, in spite of his lack of adherence to Clay's standards, its Clay's relationship that looks unworkable. Clay says he doesn't believe in dating, but I can't call their various activities anything else.
"Old Fashioned" is generally well-written and well-acted. It contains some genuinely funny moments and an undeniable sweetness, but also contains mixed messages and presents an example of courtship that is overly simplistic, unrealistic and unworkable, except in the most unusual of scenarios. All that gives this extreme view of relationships a nice, middle-of-the-road grade of "C+".
Boy meets girl. Boy refuses to be alone with girl. Girl doesn't understand. Boy explains his religious convictions and relationship rules, at the risk of driving girl away. It's a story as old as time. It really is. That's the whole point. "Old Fashioned" longs for a time when men and women followed the Bible's rules for relationships as energetically as they ignore them now and aims to show how an old fashioned relationship (taking things slow, establishing firm boundaries, etc.) can still work today. At least, that's the idea behind this buttoned-up, but touching romance.
Clay (Rik Swartzwelder, who also wrote and directed the film) is a 30-something bachelor running an antiques store named "Old Fashioned" in what looks like a typical small southern town. He rents the small furnished apartment above his store to a free-spirited single gal who cruised into town on fumes, with her cat and all her earthly belongings in her car, and decided to stay – at least for a while. You see, Amber (Elizabeth Roberts, an adorable combination of Marisa Tomei and Mary-Louise Parker) lets her car's gas gauge decide where she's going to live next – until she gets antsy and uses the jar of cash on top of her refrigerator as gas money to roll on down the highway. Amber gets a job at the local flower shop and isn't looking to get into a relationship, but she's intrigued by the seemingly antiquated relationship ideas of her new landlord. Since he doesn't believe in dating, she breaks things in her apartment so he has to come upstairs to make the necessary repairs. One of Clay's many relationship rules is not to be alone with a woman who is not his wife, so Amber stands outside her apartment and engages him in conversation through the screen door.
Soon, Clay cannot deny that he is attracted to the pretty Amber with her compassion, playfulness and love of life, while she finds herself attracted to the handsome and gentlemanly Clay. Of course, all of his rules make a courtship challenging, but she thinks he's worth the effort. They get together for a variety of wholesome activities and ask each other questions from a relationship workbook to see how compatible they are. Amber adapts to Clay's rules, but the sternness of his demeanor and the strictness of his world view leave her feeling unappreciated and undervalued. It seems that Clay is working so hard at being good for God that, without realizing it, he has become self-centered and lacking in the compassion that Christians regard as crucial to their faith. Clay's great aunt Zella (Dorothy Silver) helps him see that, but is it too late? Can Clay find a way to make it work with Amber without sacrificing his principles? No spoilers here. If you want to know what happens, you'll have to see the movie.
Of course, the question remains whether the movie is worth seeing. The performances and the production values are far superior to other faith-based movies I've seen over the years. The film portrays the two main characters as real people, who have made choices that they regret and have pasts that they wish they could change. They just go about it differently. By way of contrast, we also see the relationship of Clay's college buddy David (LeJon Woods) who is "living in sin" with his long-time girlfriend with whom he is raising their young daughter. We also meet their other college buddy, Brad (Tyler Hollinger), who is a womanizing shock radio disc jockey and whose attitudes are the exact opposite of Clay's.
The film can get preachy at times (mainly while Clay is explaining the way he lives his life), but the experience of conducting an old fashioned courtship is mainly shown as a worthy goal in and of itself, not necessarily dependent on a strong religious faith. That may sound nice, but that's where the story starts to stumble. I've never known anyone to take such a restrictive attitude towards relationships without a strong faith-based motivation. That calls into question the plot's realism. Besides that, strict Christians like Clay don't believe they should marry someone who doesn't share their commitment to Christ, but Clay seems much more interested in Amber's behavior than the compatibility of their spiritual beliefs. Then, while David's relationship is shown to be a successful one, in spite of his lack of adherence to Clay's standards, its Clay's relationship that looks unworkable. Clay says he doesn't believe in dating, but I can't call their various activities anything else.
"Old Fashioned" is generally well-written and well-acted. It contains some genuinely funny moments and an undeniable sweetness, but also contains mixed messages and presents an example of courtship that is overly simplistic, unrealistic and unworkable, except in the most unusual of scenarios. All that gives this extreme view of relationships a nice, middle-of-the-road grade of "C+".