Fresh off their 2018 surprise hit I Can Only Imagine, brother directors Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin once again explore the real-life story of a Christian rockstar (this time Jeremy Camp) and his journey through love and loss that encourages us never to give up hope even when our faith is heavily tested even in the middle of tragic circumstances.

The story is adapted from his autobiography and focuses primarily on the first six months he spent at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California while earning an associate degree in theology. Camp (K.J. Apa – The Hate U Give, The CW’s Riverdale) comes from a southern Indiana home where his father, Tom (Gary Sinise – Of Mice and Men, Apollo 13), and mother, Teri (Shania Twain) care struggle to make ends meet for Jeremy and his two much younger brothers. When Jeremy takes a bus across the country from Lafayette, Indiana, to Murrietta, California, to start his first week of classes, he has just a bag of clothes and a guitar, a last-minute gift given to him by his family.

At Calvary Chapel Bible College, he quickly latches on with an up-and-coming songwriter, lyricist, and guitar player named Jean-Luc La Joie (Nathan Parsons), who, despite his small-town fame, still has plenty of time to come back to the campus to perform shows and then hang with his friends. He especially has a fondness for one student, a friend named Melissa (Britt Robertson – Cake, Tomorrowland), with whom he’s itching to be more than just friends.

Jeremy and Melissa quickly become friends, and he, too, finds himself wanting more. She does, too, but isn’t quite ready to admit it, especially since she knows Jean-Luc’s feelings towards her. But one thing leads to another, and we know what will eventually happen between them. We don’t know what will happen with this up-and-down, Christian faith-based story. If you don’t know the story, it’s a tearjerker but one that ultimately leaves you feeling hopeful. The movie I Still Believe follows the book’s first half very closely. The film focuses more on Melissa than the book does, though I think that was what he hoped was the book’s goal.

What I would have liked more of in this movie is the actual music of Camp. It took a while for me to come to grips with the fact that Apa doesn’t sound like Camp. He sings at a much higher pitch, which is perfectly fine, but it took a little time to get used to it. Fortunately, I overcame most of that by seeing the trailers a few times and truly appreciated the difference when I finished seeing the film. But Camp has many songs, many of which were written before Melissa’s death. Unfortunately, we only got a few short segments from a small handful of these songs. I know this movie wasn’t based on his music, but I would have liked to hear more of his songs.

The acting was good, though it could have been better. The chemistry between Apa and Robertson was good but not great. Much of this involved me trying to picture the real Jeremy Camp and Melissa, not Apa and Robertson. This is not their fault, of course. It was me knowing more about Jeremy and Melissa and their story. I appreciated the sincerity of the movie. I enjoyed its slower pacing. It’s so easy to speed up a film when you have so much material from which to pull. I was grateful for them leaving pieces on the chopping floor rather than getting more content and having it expedite the movie. The supporting performances by Sinise and Twain were fine. It was good to get a couple of Hollywood A-list names in there, even if the movie would have served just fine with a few lesser-known actors.

I was a big fan of I Still Believe, though. It brought the book to life and told the story of Melissa Camp, which I know I will remember forever.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
84%

B

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