Where as once it might have been a certificate of emotional authenticity, all too often these days the accompanying tagline "Inspired by a true story" has subtly devolved into cinematic shorthand for 'Please give my poorly thought out clap-trap a pass because at least some small part of it probably happened just like I say it did.' As is the case with The Least Among You, a well-intentioned staging of noted theology professor Rev. Dr. Charles Marks' formative years, undone in equal parts by a weak central performance and a loaded screenplay courtesy of first time writer/director Mark Young.
Renamed here as Richard Kelly (Cedric Sanders), we first meet him behind bars, having been arrested during the infamous Watts riots for allegedly assaulting a cop (he maintains he did no such thing). Subsequently sentenced to probation in an all white seminary as the first ever black student, the stage is set for our prideful hero to undergo rigorous personal trials, learn valuable life-lessons, and ultimately overcome adversity, coming out the other side wiser and more tempered for it. Aside from the minor issue of gender, there is virtually nothing to separate this from the overblown TV movie-of-the-week that are the bread and butter of Lifetime Network.
Making his theatrical debut, Cedric Sanders does a nice line in simmering defiance as the majority of the student body (and select faculty) set about making it clear to him that he is certainly not welcome, but that really seems to be all that he can do. For a while the movie almost threatens to become interesting, with Kelly uncertain how to connect with a god who is seemingly quite content to have crosses set alight in Kelly's dorm room. But while his direction isn't bad, if functional, Young appears to be unable to articulate his points through means other than awkwardly wooden, politically loaded speechifying veiled as classroom theological debate. For sure he was attempting to highlight Kelly's unique perspective as the only man to have been on the receiving end of such vicious racism, but too often it just comes across that Kelly just knows better.
Matters come to a head when Kelly threatens to introduce an amendment to the College Board that will institute quotas for minority admissions and faculty placements, and President Alan Beckett (Devane), who had championed Kelly, is forced to oppose the measure after benefactors threaten to cut off funding for the new media center, threatening expulsion which for Kelly will mean jail. Despite the racially charged, high-stakes set-up, only Louis Gossett Jr. rises above the mundane, as Sam, the sage groundskeeper who first preaches patience to Kelly but is then so inspired as to put his own job on the line in support.
But here's the problem. For a film about courage, and sacrifice for one's principles, there really isn't much. The white students (save for the most despicable) all get their redemption via a moment of "Oh Captain, my Captain" defiance. Sam gets reinstated for life, Kelly gets his amendment passed, and the job he thought he had blown in order to put his shoulder to the boulder of progress is handed to him on a platter because some guy with pull, just introduced for the first time, decides he likes Kelly's pluck. It's easy to play the martyr when you don't actually have to give up anything to do it. It's not that the movie is even inherently bad, only that it is on rails, and you can't help wondering what might have been had Young not been so eager (or naive?) as to systematically undermine his own message at every conceivable opportunity.
DVD Bonus Features
Special features include a featurette on Rev. Dr. Charles Marks, "The Real Richard Kelly." Also included is a behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews with editor Omar Daher and composer Mark Kilian. Also, deleted scenes.
"The Least Among you" is on sale August 24, 2010 and is rated PG13. Drama. Written and directed by Mark Young. Starring Cedric Sanders, Lauren Holly, Louis Gossett Jr, William Devane.
