Lorena Segura York | Through the Shattered Lens

The Taylor family returns in 2019’s Catching Faith 2!

It’s been four years since Alexa (Lorena Segura York) and John Taylor (Dariush Moslemi) forced their son to confess to drinking two beers at a high school party. As a result of his confession, Beau Taylor (Garrett Westton) was suspended from playing during the regular season and was briefly the most unpopular guy at his high school. However, it appears that did not keep Beau from getting into a good college and eventually make it to the NFL.

Meanwhile, Ravyn Taylor (Bethany Peterson) has also moved out of the house, presumably to attend MIT. As we saw in the previous movie, she was so moved by Beau’s decision to confess that she decided not to cheat on her Latin midterm. Apparently, that decision paid off because Ravyn still became the class valedictorian.

Alexa and John now live in their huge house with only Alexa’s mother, Loretta (Sandra Flagstad). Loretta is suffering from Alzheimer’s and she is often confused and angry. Alexa has been offered a job with an up-and-coming design firm but she’s not sure how she can balance working and taking care of her mom.

When he’s injured in a game, Beau is informed that his football career is over. Using crutches and struggling to find the strength to even bend his knee, Beau returns home and takes a job as an assistant to his old football coach (played by Bill Engvall). While Beau is learning how to coach and coming to terms with the loss of his dreams, Ravyn is preparing for her wedding!

Alexa is excited that Ravyn has gotten married because Alexa has spent the last 20 years planning Ravyn’s wedding. However, she’s a bit less excited when she learns that Ravyn’s husband is in the army and is scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan and that he’s Nathan Adams (Shane McCamant). Nathan is a good and responsible guy but he’s also the son of Jezi Adams (Alexandra Boylan), who was once Alexa’s best friend until they had a falling out over Alexa forcing her son to confess to drinking beer. Jezi felt that, by forcing Beau to confess, Alexa put the future of the entire team (including her son, who was the quarterback) at risk. Jezi and Alexa immediately start to argue, in their own passive aggressive way, over their conflicting visions of what the wedding should be like. Of course, neither one ever bother to ask Ravyn what she wants.

Changing Faith 2 is better than the first one, largely because the characters are all now adults and there’s nothing in the film as ridiculous as Alexa and John forcing their son to put his entire future at risk just because he had a beer at a high school party. As opposed to the first film, there are only a few scenes — mostly featuring Alexa talking to her bible study group about how difficult it is to balance all of her responsibilites — that indicate that this is meant to be a religious movie. I also liked the fact that the sequel spent more time focusing on Alexa’s heritage, which was something the first film barely acknowledged.

That said, with the possible exception of Ravyn, none of the Taylors were particularly sympathetic characters and the film features a “shocking” death that, because you’ll see coming from a mile away, ultimately feels a bit manipulative. The scenes at Alexa’s new job (where everyone is a flakey millennial) feels like some sort of boomer fever dream of what young people are like and Jezi is portrayed in such a cartoonish fashion that the ultimate reconciliation between her and Alexa never quite carries the emotional punch that it should. Catching Faith 2 is an improvement on the first film but it’s still weighted down by its own heavy-handedness.

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.