My spirits were not exactly high walking into
The Ultimate Gift. For those of you who don't know, the film is the latest release from 20th Century Fox's Christian film label, Fox Faith. After the hideous heavy-handed preaching and over the top broadly portrayed characters featured in
Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, I wasn't exactly looking forward to having a movie preach at me some more. To my surprise,
The Ultimate Gift is a little more subtle in its message, and a much better made film all around. Director Michael O. Sajbel knows how to tell an actual story without stopping to preach to us every five minutes, and the characters are generally likeable thanks to some fine performances on display. The film is too contrived and mechanical in its story to work completely, but what does work generally works very well.
When billionaire oil tycoon Red Stevens (James Garner) passes away, his uncaring and selfish family are eagerly anticipating a big pay off when it comes time for family lawyer Ted Hamilton (Bill Cobbs) to read his will. However, there is only one family member whom the will mainly focuses on, and that is Red's troubled and spoiled young adult grandson, Jason (Drew Fuller from TV's
Charmed). Red has left behind a video message for Jason, where he talks about a series of gifts that will lead to "the ultimate gift". These "gifts" are actually trials that Jason will have to overcome in order to become a better person. First, Jason is sent off to Texas to work on a ranch run by Red's grizzled cowboy friend Gus (Brian Dennehy) in order to learn the value of hard work. He will also loose everything temporarily in order to learn the value of money and realize who his real friends are. Having led a carefree existence where money and his gold-digging girlfriend were all that mattered, Jason will finally open his eyes and realize what is truly important to him. Along the way, he befriends a feisty little girl named Emily (Abigail Breslin from
Little Miss Sunshine) who is dying of leukemia, and her mother Alexia (Ali Hillis).
With a premise like that, there are so many ways that
The Ultimate Gift could have fallen into the deadly trap of sap and manipulation. While it does definitely have its moments where I was rolling my eyes (particularly a Thanksgiving dinner scene with Jason's wealthy family, where everyone is just so boorish and over the top insensitive they seemed like they belonged in a different movie), for the most part, the film keeps things light and small and chooses not to hit us over the head with its own message. The "gifts" and the message they provide drive the plot, but do not slow it down. What keeps the film mostly afloat is that the screenplay by Cheryl McKay (working from a novel by Jim Stovall) knows that it is the characters that have to be in control, not the message itself. She manages to avoid a couple expected cliches. Emily, the little girl suffering from leukemia, is smart and equally smart-mouthed. She doesn't lie in her hospital bed the entire movie with big sad eyes, nor does she get to cry on cue every chance she gets, except for one scene where she actually earns those tears. The movie's plot structure is also smart, as it allows the character of Jason to change gradually during the course of the film, instead of a sudden miraculous transformation. There are 12 "gifts" in all during the course of the film, and each lesson they hold is told to us in a straight-forward way, rather than in a heavy-handed or preaching manner. It seems as if the filmmakers were trying to make a good movie first, and a values movie second, which I think is the right approach.
The film is further supported by some genuinely fine acting for most of the principal characters. Drew Fuller seems to play his early "selfish" scenes a bit too over the top as Jason, but he becomes a lot more human and likeable as the film goes on. His character grows dimensions as he learns each lesson, and he starts to resemble a human being rather than a buffoonish interpretation of a spoiled "rich kid". Abigail Breslin gives yet another fine performance, and proves that her Oscar nomination for her previous film was no fluke. She is very funny and likeable as the child who plays one of the biggest roles in Jason's transformation. The screenplay does at times make her character a little too smart for a child, but Breslin is still able to pass herself off as a genuine character. I truly hope she can continue to get good roles so that she doesn't disappear into obscurity like so many other previous child stars. The other two big names in the cast, James Garner and Brian Dennehy, are mainly restricted to small cameos that never get much of a chance to leave an impression on us. Garner exists only in video form in this film, but still manages to at least give a little bit of warmth and honestly to his performance. It's said that this is to be Garner's final film before he retires from acting. I hope this is not true, as the man is a genuine talent, and I'd hate to see his final role be one where he simply sits in a leather chair and talks to a video camera.
The Ultimate Gift is a lot better than it probably has any right to be, but it still can't avoid some pitfalls. Jason's wealthy and insensitive family are played in such a broad and cartoonishly stuck up manner, I was happy they only appeared in two scenes in the entire film. These sequences reek of forced feeling as well as manipulation, and generally seem out of place with the rest of the film. A late scene where Jason is forced to visit a dangerous foreign country and is kidnapped by some violent rebels also seems to come out of nowhere, and takes too much time away from the things in the film that do work. The reason why a lot of these scenes don't work is because the movie temporarily loses its subtlety and sure-hand approach, and decides to throw some bombastic sequences and hard to swallow situations. These moments are not enough for me to completely dismiss the film, but they did hinder my enjoyment. I also couldn't help but think that the movie was too small for the big screen. It has all the production values and a screenplay worthy of a made-for-TV movie that you'd watch on a Sunday night, and it'd probably be sponsored by Hallmark. Something tells me this movie will play better on DVD, as on the theater screen, it just seems out of place.
I wasn't as moved or as inspired as I think the filmmakers intended me to be while watching
The Ultimate Gift, but I certainly don't regret seeing it. The movie works in bits and pieces. Not enough for me to fully recommend it, but also just enough for me to say there's a lot to like here. If anything, this movie is required viewing for filmmaker Tyler Perry so that he can figure out how to create a spiritual message movie without making his audience feel like they've been overly manipulated or jerked around. When all is said and done, the movie at least has its heart in the right place. One final thing I feel I must add, however. I don't know if it was necessary to show clips from the movie during the end credits, repeating the lessons that Jason learned during the film. But, at least you can walk out the door when the credits start to roll, so you don't have to reminded twice.
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My spirits were not exactly high walking into The Ultimate Gift. For those of you who don't know, the film is the latest release from 20th Century Fox's Christian film label, Fox Faith. After the hideous heavy-handed preaching and over the top broadly portrayed characters featured in Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, I wasn't exactly looking forward to having a movie preach at me some more. To my surprise, The Ultimate Gift is a little more subtle in its message, and a much better made film all around. Director Michael O. Sajbel knows how to tell an actual story without stopping to preach to us every five minutes, and the characters are generally likeable thanks to some fine performances on display. The film is too contrived and mechanical in its story to work completely, but what does work generally works very well.
When billionaire oil tycoon Red Stevens (James Garner) passes away, his uncaring and selfish family are eagerly anticipating a big pay off when it comes time for family lawyer Ted Hamilton (Bill Cobbs) to read his will. However, there is only one family member whom the will mainly focuses on, and that is Red's troubled and spoiled young adult grandson, Jason (Drew Fuller from TV's Charmed). Red has left behind a video message for Jason, where he talks about a series of gifts that will lead to "the ultimate gift". These "gifts" are actually trials that Jason will have to overcome in order to become a better person. First, Jason is sent off to Texas to work on a ranch run by Red's grizzled cowboy friend Gus (Brian Dennehy) in order to learn the value of hard work. He will also loose everything temporarily in order to learn the value of money and realize who his real friends are. Having led a carefree existence where money and his gold-digging girlfriend were all that mattered, Jason will finally open his eyes and realize what is truly important to him. Along the way, he befriends a feisty little girl named Emily (Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine) who is dying of leukemia, and her mother Alexia (Ali Hillis).
With a premise like that, there are so many ways that The Ultimate Gift could have fallen into the deadly trap of sap and manipulation. While it does definitely have its moments where I was rolling my eyes (particularly a Thanksgiving dinner scene with Jason's wealthy family, where everyone is just so boorish and over the top insensitive they seemed like they belonged in a different movie), for the most part, the film keeps things light and small and chooses not to hit us over the head with its own message. The "gifts" and the message they provide drive the plot, but do not slow it down. What keeps the film mostly afloat is that the screenplay by Cheryl McKay (working from a novel by Jim Stovall) knows that it is the characters that have to be in control, not the message itself. She manages to avoid a couple expected cliches. Emily, the little girl suffering from leukemia, is smart and equally smart-mouthed. She doesn't lie in her hospital bed the entire movie with big sad eyes, nor does she get to cry on cue every chance she gets, except for one scene where she actually earns those tears. The movie's plot structure is also smart, as it allows the character of Jason to change gradually during the course of the film, instead of a sudden miraculous transformation. There are 12 "gifts" in all during the course of the film, and each lesson they hold is told to us in a straight-forward way, rather than in a heavy-handed or preaching manner. It seems as if the filmmakers were trying to make a good movie first, and a values movie second, which I think is the right approach.
The film is further supported by some genuinely fine acting for most of the principal characters. Drew Fuller seems to play his early "selfish" scenes a bit too over the top as Jason, but he becomes a lot more human and likeable as the film goes on. His character grows dimensions as he learns each lesson, and he starts to resemble a human being rather than a buffoonish interpretation of a spoiled "rich kid". Abigail Breslin gives yet another fine performance, and proves that her Oscar nomination for her previous film was no fluke. She is very funny and likeable as the child who plays one of the biggest roles in Jason's transformation. The screenplay does at times make her character a little too smart for a child, but Breslin is still able to pass herself off as a genuine character. I truly hope she can continue to get good roles so that she doesn't disappear into obscurity like so many other previous child stars. The other two big names in the cast, James Garner and Brian Dennehy, are mainly restricted to small cameos that never get much of a chance to leave an impression on us. Garner exists only in video form in this film, but still manages to at least give a little bit of warmth and honestly to his performance. It's said that this is to be Garner's final film before he retires from acting. I hope this is not true, as the man is a genuine talent, and I'd hate to see his final role be one where he simply sits in a leather chair and talks to a video camera.
The Ultimate Gift is a lot better than it probably has any right to be, but it still can't avoid some pitfalls. Jason's wealthy and insensitive family are played in such a broad and cartoonishly stuck up manner, I was happy they only appeared in two scenes in the entire film. These sequences reek of forced feeling as well as manipulation, and generally seem out of place with the rest of the film. A late scene where Jason is forced to visit a dangerous foreign country and is kidnapped by some violent rebels also seems to come out of nowhere, and takes too much time away from the things in the film that do work. The reason why a lot of these scenes don't work is because the movie temporarily loses its subtlety and sure-hand approach, and decides to throw some bombastic sequences and hard to swallow situations. These moments are not enough for me to completely dismiss the film, but they did hinder my enjoyment. I also couldn't help but think that the movie was too small for the big screen. It has all the production values and a screenplay worthy of a made-for-TV movie that you'd watch on a Sunday night, and it'd probably be sponsored by Hallmark. Something tells me this movie will play better on DVD, as on the theater screen, it just seems out of place.
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