It’s hard to take The 5th Quarter and similar films created with such an overt evangelical message seriously, and yet it’s a style of filmmaking that’s taking off in response to the growing “demand” for such films by the increasingly vocal Christian populace of America. Earlier this year the audience in question enjoyed Soul Surfer while the rest of the world squirmed uncomfortably in their seats as the 30-minute “movie of the week” story stretched to 90 minutes. The 5th Quarter has a similar “true story” premise, but this time of instead of the survivor going on to do great things in faith, it’s their death that spurs their loved ones to action. As a concept The 5th Quarter could have proved as entertaining as it is (theoretically) inspiring if not for the incompetent direction and writing of Rick Bieber and woefully bad acting by its lead, Ryan Merriman. The memory of Luke Abbate deserves better than this ham-fisted tribute that lets its preaching get in the way of its story.
It was getting late and the young and virtuous Luke Abbate just wanted to go home, but his friends misled him. The one driving, wearing black and blasting heavy metal out of the stereo, chooses instead to nonsensically skip the turn to Luke’s neighborhood, gun it up a hill and then, somehow, flip the car over and into a ditch. Luke’s parents (Aidan Quinn, Andie MacDowell) rush to the scene of the accident to find their son has been airlifted to a hospital where he ends up in critical condition and on life support with a grim prognosis. Knowing Luke now has eternity to spend with Jesus, the Abbates make the hard choice and pull the plug after opting to donate Luke’s organs so others can live. The loss wears hard on Jon (Merriman), Luke’s older brother, who finds it hard to return to his studies and football team at Wake Forest University. Eventually though, through faith and devoting the season to Luke’s memory, Jon inspires his team to one victory after another making them unlikely contenders for the champs of their division.
For a true story, it’s surprising how much of The 5th Quarter feels wholly unnatural, from the dialogue to the characters, all of which are entirely devoid of truth or depth. Rick Bieber has a tin ear for dialogue reflected in both how he directs the actors and the lines he has them delivering. After watching The 5th Quarter no one could blame you for thinking Rick Bieber has never had a single conversation with another human being ever, because he clearly has no sense of how people actually speak. Of course, the grating dialogue could be the direct result of his attempt to squeeze in as much saccharine feel-good philosophizing about how great God is and the true reason for loss. He lays all doubts about the veracity of his dialogue to rest about 15-minutes in when Luke, grieving at a bar amongst his friends, gets worked up into a state and asks with clichéd desperation how God could let bad things happen to good people. The answer? So Jon would be encouraged to do such a great thing in His name (not Luke’s name, but God’s). If at this point The 5th Quarter hasn’t thrown you into inappropriate fits of laughter or rage at the silly amounts of Christian propaganda crammed into the film’s first fifth, then you just might be its target demographic, though even the truly devout might find this all a bit overbearing.
Maybe the final product would be more palatable if the elements of the inspirational sports film weren’t drowned out completely by the message of faith. Bieber managed to get MacDowell and Quinn, both capable actors when they have worthwhile material, but he squanders them in thankless roles which aren’t characters as much as they are mouthpieces spouting scripture. The 5th Quarter, in its devotion to having a cast of missionaries instead of realistic characters, has everyone relating everything back to religion at least once per scene. It reaches an absurd level pretty early on when Luke’s parents arrive at the hospital and find him hooked up to machines and, instead of talking to him and saying how much they love him, his mother takes a bible out of thin air and begins reading passages to him. Conviction of belief is one thing, but there are kinder words a mother can say to her severely injured child than what can be found in a religious text. At which point the film makes it very clear that it will willfully forego reality in favor of Christianity.
Did it actually happen like this? Is the Abbate family so blindingly, over the top Christian that it penetrates everything they do? Or is this the embellishment added to make it more appealing to the audience it thinks is looking for films like this? Whatever the case, even if there is a section of the movie-going populace that wants a film as aggressively evangelical as this, they deserve one with better acting, direction, and writing. The 5th Quarter fails in all three respects and should be allowed to fade into obscurity.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
A simple “making of” featurette is the only extra.
"The 5th Quarter" is on sale August 30, 2011 and is rated PG. Drama, Sports. Written and directed by Rick Bieber. Starring Aidan Quinn, Andie Macdowell, Ryan Merriman.
