‘I Still Believe’ (2020) – A Non-Spoiler Review

I Still Believe is based on the true story of Christian singer/songwriter Jeremy Camp (KJ Apa), his wife Melissa Henning (Britt Robertson), their journey together, and the song inspired by that journey.

 

Andrew and Jon Erwin, the brothers that directed 2018’s I Can Only Imagine, are back in the director chairs to helm yet another true story Christian film. I didn’t mind I Can Only Imagine, so I figured if this film was anything like their last, it’d be at least a decent watch. Well, I was wrong, because I Still Believe was beyond decent and turned out really good! I thought the Erwin brothers did a great job of telling us the story of Camp and Henning’s relationship, taking us on their journey, allowing us to feel just a portion of what Camp and Henning felt during that time, and all of this coming together perfectly to back up the theme of the film, which I’ll touch on later.

Someone I feel I have to give a lot of credit to is Kristopher Kimlin, the cinematographer for I Still Believe. I say that because the cinematography is really beautiful in this film. It’s almost like you could stop the movie at any frame and have something stunning to look at. From the framing to the use of color and light, how the actors look on-screen and the utilization of the different environments. Rather it’s full-on eye candy or something a little more subtle, I feel like there’s not a single bad frame in this film.

Upon looking through the movie’s IMDb page, I found that there are visual effects artists credited for working on this film. Now, I have no reason to assume, other than those credits, that CGI or visual effects are used in I Still Believe, so I think it’s safe to say that maybe those people worked primarily on the graphics (as in credits, informative text, etc.)? Granted, there are a couple scenes involving driving that very well could’ve been shot on a green or blue screen, but they looked so real that I wouldn’t even guess that was the case. Except for the danger involved in actors actually driving a vehicle. Then again, they could’ve towed the vehicles. My point is, if they used any kind of visual effects or CGI in I Still Believe, they absolutely fooled me and the only way I could pick those scenes out would be by making educated guesses, as I just did.

KJ Apa and Britt Robertson do absolutely fantastic in this movie. Not only do they do great individually, but they also do great together as they have a ton of chemistry! I’m already a fan of Britt Robertson so I was expecting her performance to be really good at the least. However, KJ Apa I only know from 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose and I don’t really remember his performance in that film, so I didn’t know what to expect from him in I Still Believe. Well, he didn’t disappoint as he was right up there with Robertson, in terms of talent.

The supporting cast includes Melissa Roxburgh, Nathan Parsons, Gary Sinise, and Shania Twain. They all did an overall good job in their roles, however, I will say that Twain could work on being a little less dry with her dialogue. Other than that, I don’t have that many issues with any of the performances. Maybe some really tiny nitpicks, but they aren’t even worth going through.

The characters in I Still Believe are very relatable and that is the number one thing I look for in characters. Honestly, there have been movies in the past that weren’t exactly the best, but because I related to the characters a lot, I enjoyed those movies more. And in I Still Believe there were quite a few aspects to the characters and the moments they had that were, directly and indirectly, relatable to me. So, that’s enough for me to say that the characters were written pretty well. Add on the great development and relationships between characters and we have something really good going!

Writers Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn did a great job writing this film. They wrote a cohesive script that shows me why this true story is important, they pulled me in and connected me to the story on a personal level, and in the end, they left me satisfied. Every scene and moment held value and added something to the film as a whole, keeping a steady flow at all times. Furthermore, regarding the flow, the pacing was handled great! There wasn’t a scene that felt out of place or slow and I never lost interest. Did it feel shorter than it was? No, I’d say you can tell it’s a nearly two-hour film, but that’s not enough for me to knock the overall pacing.

Now there is one issue that I have with this movie that really bothers me and that is the musical performances. I’m not about to bash any of the singing, because the singing was really great. No, I’m speaking more along the lines of the editing, but it translates into the pacing, as well. When there is a musical performance where someone is singing in a concert or even a recording booth, I feel like those performances are cut way too short. Granted, after some thought on this, I slightly understand why they cut down the performances throughout. However, there is one performance in particular that they made a huge mistake with cutting down. It had a lot of potential to be a very powerful, gripping scene and they missed it.

While we’re on the subject of music, let’s go over the original score. Given that this is based around a singer/songwriter, most of the music in this film is made up of songs that have been previously written by Jeremy Camp and other artists. Therefore, the amount of original, instrumental music is kind of low. Looking at the I Still Believe Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, there are about five original tracks by composer John Debney. However, his few tracks stand out a lot to me. They had the perfect balance between being noticeable yet subtle and always giving a boost to the scene they were in. So, in a movie focused on popular pre-written songs, John Debney’s work definitely stood well on its own.

As I previously stated, this film has a very important theme. That theme would be that love and faith can go a long way in hard times. Granted, those two things aren’t the miracle solutions that make everything go back to normal. Things still go wrong and people still suffer, however, keeping love in your heart and holding on to faith in the darkest times will help far more than hatred and doubt. And I Still Believe portrays that theme perfectly!

Overall, I Still Believe is a surprising success. I say that because despite expecting the performances to be good at the least, I didn’t realize the film as a whole would come out as good as it did. But, thanks to fantastic performances from KJ Apa and Britt Robertson, great direction from the Erwin brothers, and a powerful script by Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn, this film has a lot in its favor.

9.5/10

I Still Believe is now available for rent On Demand! Will you be giving it a try or have you already checked it out? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! And while you’re here, give The Cinema Spot a follow on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_) for more movie news and reviews! Have a great day!