The 2015 film, Catching Faith, presents us with the following scenario.

You are the mother of a 17 year-old football star.  Your son is the reason why his school’s team is going to make the playoffs.  As a result, he’s the most popular kid in school.  In fact, he’s the most popular kid in the state.  Everyone loves him and you know what?  He’s actually handling it all pretty well.  He still works hard.  He still goes to practice.  He looks after his sister.  He treats you and your husband with respect.  Are his grades great?  Not really but is he passing and he’s certainly doing well enough that he’ll probably be able to get a football scholarship.

But then, you find out that your 17 year-old son went to a party after a game.  And he had a few beers, just as everyone else on the team did.  The police showed up but your son was allowed to leave.  In other words, he didn’t get caught.  He was also smart enough not to try to drive himself home in his intoxicated condition.  When, after a good deal of hesitation on your part, you ask him if he was drinking that night, he doesn’t lie to you.  He admits that he was drinking, as was everyone else on the team.

Do you sit down and have a talk with him, one in which you encourage him not to drink (especially since he’s not 21) while also making it clear that he can still call you if he ever does find himself in a situation where he has had too much?  Do you maybe ground him for a week or two, just so he understands that there are consequences for breaking the rules?

Or….

Do you whip out the rules and regulations book that he was given at the start of the semester and announce that if he doesn’t turn himself into the coach, you’ll do it yourself?  Keep in mind that, by doing this, you’ll be guaranteeing that your son doesn’t play in another regular game for the rest of the season.  You’ll be ruining his chance to impress the college scouts.  The football team will lose its best player and probably won’t win anymore games, which means that the other members of the team will probably lose whatever chance they had to get a football scholarship.  And, of course, your son will become a pariah at the time in his life when it’s really important to have friends?

If you are Alexa (Lorena Seguara York) and John Taylor (Dariush Moslemi), you go with the second option.  You explain that, as Christians, you’re not allowed to lie and you force your son, Beau (Garrett Westton), to confess to his coach (comedian Bill Engvall) that he had one or two beers at a party.  And then, of course, if your Alexa and John, you spend the rest of the school year wondering the entire town now hates you.

Of course, Beau is not the only member of the Taylor family who has to make a choice about being honest.  Alexa is torn over whether or not to tell John that she exchanged the necklace that he gave her for a better one.  Meanwhile, daughter Ravyn (Bethany Peterson) has to decide whether or not to cheat on her Latin exam so that she can be valedictorian and go to MIT.

Seriously, this is a dilemma?  Look, the world’s not going to end if you cheat on a Latin exam.  Who would pick their integrity over attending MIT?  And, for that matter, men are clueless when it comes to jewelry.  I kind of doubt John would have ever noticed that Alexa’s necklace was different from the one that he gave her.

I guess my point here is that this family is obsessed with creating drama where there really doesn’t need to be any.  Just be glad that your son didn’t go to jail and that he’s going to get a football scholarship.  (Seriously, do you want to pay for his college?)  And be happy your daughter is going to MIT.  And be happy with the pretty new necklace!

I wasn’t surprised to discover that it was set in Wisconsin because I can tell you right now that none of this would have ever happened in Texas.  A high school football player getting caught drinking?  That’s just a typical weeknight down here.  This was a deeply silly movie.  Parents, please don’t humiliate your 17 year-olds like this.