Lou Beatty Jr. – Through the Shattered Lens

In 2007’s Welcome to Paradise, Crystal Bernard stars as Debbie Laramie. Debbie is a preacher who belongs to one of those weird Protestant churches where it’s apparently appropriate to heckle someone while they’re giving a sermon. After Debbie scandalizes her parish by removing her jacket while preaching, she is reassigned to a church in the small town of Paradise. Apparently, this is not the first time that Debbie has been reassigned. She’s a rebellious preacher who does things her own way or, at least, that’s what we’re told. (She doesn’t ever seem that rebellious to me, but then again, I’m used to the Jesuits.) Debbie’s teenage son certainly isn’t happy about having to move again.

In Paradise, Debbie makes a name for herself by reaching out to the town’s surprisingly large homeless population. She invites a street performer named Trevor (Lou Beatty, Jr.) to play his guitar at the church. She holds a potluck dinner to help feed the residents of the local shelter. When a sudden storm approaches, she allows Frances (Beth Grant) to spend the night on the church’s back porch. (Debbie tries to convince Frances to come home with her, but Frances doesn’t want to impose.) Unfortunately, Frances gets cold and tries to build a small fire for warmth. The next thing anyone knows, the church is burning down.

A snooty bishop tells Debbie that the decision has been made to revoke the church’s charter and that all the members will be assigned to the new megachurch. Debbie, however, has already found an abandoned barn that she thinks she can turn into a church, and a local businessman named Bobby Brown (Brian Dennehy—wait, BRIAN DENNEHY!?) has agreed to help fund the new church. Debbie is told that if she can have everything ready to go in a week, the church will keep its charter. Otherwise, Debbie will have to find yet another new job, her son will have to move again, and the residents of the shelter won’t have anywhere to go.

This film wasn’t actually that bad. I liked the fact that it not only took place in small-town Texas but also captured the feeling of living in a small town. Paradise is the type of town where the richest man in town owns a used car lot and where everyone lends a helping hand to those in need. If this were a horror movie, of course, the town would have turned out to be a haven for vampires. Since this was a religious movie, it just turned out to be a nice place to live. Crystal Bernard gave a likable performance as Debbie, and Brian Dennehy, of course, was perfectly cast as the gruff but good-natured businessman. There were actually quite a few familiar faces in the film. William Shockley, Beth Grant, Ken Jenkins, and Jim O’Heir all made appearances. Even comedian Timothy Stack showed up in a small role.

In the end, Welcome to Paradise is a sweet-natured and likable movie. If it had been set during a December snowstorm, it could have easily been mistaken for a Hallmark film.

In 2011’s Me Again, David A.R. White stars as Rich.

Rich is a typical David A.R. White character. He’s a preacher with a young family and he has lost his ability to excite his congregation. His sermons are dry and boring and show little connection with the concerns or lives of those listening. Rich is burned out and his wife, April (Ali Landry), is tired of listening to him complain. When they were children, April promised Rich that they were meant to be together. Now that they are adults and married, April and Rich are separated and April wants to make the divorce final.

Poor Rich! No one respects him and he’s about to lose his family. His one friend, Tony (Tommy Blaze), tries to offer some good advice but Rich doesn’t want to hear it. Rich just wants to feel sorry for himself and watch an odd infomercial hosted by Big Earl (Bruce McGill). Big Earl says that if you call his number, he can change your life. Rich doesn’t call the number but his life gets changed anyways.

Rich finds himself being transported from one body to another. When he wakes up, he’s a wealthy man who has no friends and who has a heart condition. Just as quickly, he finds himself in the body of Chloe (Andrea White Logan), an insecure super model with an eating disorder. Then, suddenly, he’s in the body of a fish floating in a fish tank in Tony’s restaurant. Then he’s his daughter’s teen boyfriend, who is pressuring her to start taking birth control. (AGCK!) Then he’s in his wife’s body. Briefly, he takes control of Della Reese. He even spends some time in jail, talking to Big Earl.

And I guess the idea is that, from going to body to body, Rich learns why he needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and actually make the effort to make his marriage work. He also comes to understand the problems of a few other people. The rich man needs to go to church. The model needs to do something about all the disparaging post-it notes that she has hanging around her house. Her daughter’s boyfriend needs to be handcuffed with a sock in his mouth. The fish need as new home. You get the idea.

This movie …. well, let’s give credit where credit is due. David A.R. White is not a bad actor and his comedic timing is adequate. There were a few moments when he did make me smile. I laughed out loud when he suddenly became a fish. As a director, though, White goes a bit overboard. The whole thing with Rich becoming a model starts out as relatively humorous but then it just goes on and on. As well, I appreciated the message of taking care of other people but I’m not sure that the best way to communicate that message was for the very white Rich to briefly inhabit the body of a black housekeeper. The intentions may have been good but the execution often left me cringing.

Me Again is like a lot of faith-based comedies. There are a few humorous moments but, in the end, it’s just too uneven to really work.