Finding Glee in Christ
Following a shooting at his school, which saw his brother killed, Aaron Chase (Ben Davies - New Hope) and his mum relocate with Aaron starting at Rosewood High School. But Aaron quickly discovers two things at the school; there are those who are against religion and do not permit any of the "religious nonsense" in the school and secondly budget cuts means that certain activities such as glee club have been cancelled. Angered by this Aaron and other students along with Mr. Garcia (Erik Estrada - Virtuous), the school's janitor, decide to make a stand not only against the cuts which threaten the theatre but also the political correctness which forbids them from even holding a bible study group.
I don't watch a great deal of faith based movies or Christian cinema as it is also referred to but in the last couple of weeks I have watched two and both focused on the subject of the separation between state and religion. In both cases we get two sides; the good guys who want the right to have bible study groups and put on religious plays and in this case the bad guys who prohibit this especially a religion hating teacher who has the stink eye when he comes across a group holding an illegal bible study group.
The thing is that whilst "Uncommon" has good intentions and some pearls of wisdom whether you are a Christian or not. whilst having a good moral code when it comes to giving your time to others. it forces things. The set up of a teacher being evil when it comes to religion is simply painfully forced and you almost expect him to have his own Darth Vader theme music when ever he enters a room. And then there is some comedy featuring some old guys in a nursing home who bicker and call each others names, it just forces it too much.
What I think happened with "Uncommon" also featuring the storyline of the school's glee club fighting the cuts when it comes to school plays is that it tries to be like "Glee" but twisting it around that the students in the club find inspiration from the stories in the bible. But it again it suffers from all feeling a bit too forced, trying to hard to get the point across whilst also being commercially entertaining, and in fairness it is more commercially entertaining than many a Christian movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Uncommon" should entertain a Christian audience and has a much greater commercial appeal than a lot of recent Christian movies I have watched. But once again it is a movie which struggles with getting its message across without forcing things and sadly it is the forcing of things which causes the movie to struggle.
