Jim E. Chandler | Through the Shattered Lens

First released in 2019 and funded by an Indiegogo campaign, The Reliant is the epitome of a late-era Eric Roberts film.

Roberts appears towards the beginning of the film. He gets roughly 45 seconds of screen time. He delivers three lines, all in close-up. His character is named Mr. Johnson but, to know that, you have to sit through the entire film so that you can track down his name in the end credits. We don’t know anything about his character, other than he’s a hardware store owner. We don’t know anything about his fate. When last seen, his store is being overrun by a bunch of Antifa goons. It’s not looking good for Mr. Johnson but luckily, he has a lot of weapons.

Kevin Sorbo is also in the film. His role is slight larger. He only gets maybe 16 minutes worth of screentime. His character is killed off fairly early but he does get to appear in a few flashbacks and a fantasy sequence. He plays a father who has taught his children how to shoot guns and survive in case society breaks down. Society does break down and he dies while defending his family. He probably would have survived if his liberal daughter Sophie (Mollee Gray) hadn’t hid the key to the gun safe. Sophie (boo!) doesn’t believe in the Second Amendment and doesn’t like it when her father goes shooting. Not even the sight of hundreds of angry rioters getting ready to open fire on her house can change Sophie’s mind. Boo, Sophie, boo!

Sophie doesn’t believe in killing, even if self-defense. (I don’t believe in killing either. That said, if someone’s coming at you with a gun, you have every right to defend yourself.) When she finds out that her fiancé, Adam (Josh Murray), has had to kill people while she and her siblings were hiding out in the woods, Sophie throws a fit and says that she doesn’t even want Adam — who can barely walk due to an injury — staying at her family’s camp. Sophie is a …. well, I swore off profanity for Lent.

Sophie and her family are being stalked by Jack (Brian Bosworth), an angry man who has a personal grudge against them. Along with Roberts and Sorbo, Bosworth is the other “name” in this movie and he actually does get substantial screentime. And he actually gives a good performance as well, certainly the best in this film.

The Reliant is a technically well-made film and some of the action sequences are surprisingly effective. Unfortunately, whenever the characters are arguing about faith and whether or not guns cen be a useful tool, the movie becomes painfully draggy. The Reliant is occasionally fun in a “I’m going to show this to the most annoying leftie I know and watch them get offended” sort of way. But, for the most part, it’s just too talky and slow for its own good.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

When this 2021 film started, I noticed that the only immediately familiar name in the opening credits was Corbin Bernsen, who was the third-billed member of the cast. Bernsen’s presence in the film did not surprise me. Bernsen has appeared in several faith-based films and he’s even directed a few.

What did surprise me was just how briefly Bernsen’s appearance actually waas. It’s a blink-and-you’ll miss it appearance and, unless I somehow missed it, I don’t think he actually has a line of dialogue in the film. He plays the uncle of one of the film’s main characters. He’s an archeologist and, whenever he finds any ancient glass at the site of any of his digs, he sends it to his nephew. The nephew eventually decides to put all that glass to good use by taping it all together and using it as the frames for his previously frameless glasses. Suddenly, whenever he puts on the glasses, he can see the past!

That’s good because one of his professors has felt guilty ever since his grandson was kidnapped. So now, he can just put on the glasses and see who did the abducting. Yay! However, another professor — a physicist — wants the glasses for himself so he drugs our hero and steals the glasses. Luckily, everything works out in the end. Bad professor goes to jail. Good professor stops drinking and is reunited with his family. And the guy with the glasses gets a recording contract in Nashville.

I guess the glasses are meant to represent faith. And the bad scientist is meant to represent everyone who says that science is more important than faith. I’m not sure that glasses that allow you to see into the past is the best way sell the idea of faith. I mean, if you’re so inclined, I guess you could spend as much time as you want praying for a pair of magic glasses that will allow you to see into the past but, at some point, you’re going to have to admit that there’s no such thing as magic glasses, no matter how much you want to believe in them. In this case, the scientist laughing at you would be proven right.

I had another thought while watching this film. A good sound mix is really important. If you want people to get anything out of your movie, it’s important that they be able to hear what your characters are saying. It’s important that the characters actually sound like they’re all in the same room as opposed to just standing in a booth and reading their lines off a piece of paper. The sound was all over the place. Sometimes, I had to strain to hear everything. Sometimes, I winced because the movie was too loud. Considering how talky this film is and how often the action segues into flashback, this movie needed a much cleaner sound to it. There’s more to making a good film than focusing the image, though this film struggled with that as well.

Anyway, the most interesting thing about this film is Corbin Bernsen showing up for 2 minutes and not saying anything. Has Bernsen become the poor man’s Eric Roberts?