At
first, I had no intention of watching this movie called Blue Like Jazz, not even the slightest. With
such a title, it conjured up a few images in my mind which had nothing to do
with the actual plot of the film. However, since I had requested a summary of The
Help on IMDB and it came up on the “People who liked this also liked…” section,
I figured I would give it a shot.
The
film revolves around Don (Marshall Allman), a soon to be first year student at
a Texas liberal arts college where his sole purpose is to rid of his Christian upbringing.
The title character is surrounded by a semi-fulfilled, single parented, lifestyle
to a stereotypical, break-out teen kind of lifestyle he decides to lead in his
first year at college.
The
film makes use of an abbreviation which is used at the said college, namely:
“SCCR”. Setting, Conflict, Climate, Resolution, which the film pronounces as
‘’sucker’’. This forms part of the story arc, until the final ‘’Resolution’’
stage is reached. Steve Taylor uses this, along with satire of evangelism and awkward
humour which distinguishes it from what you’d expect from a typical Christian
film.
An
emphasis seems to be placed not on Don’s newly found disbelief, but in exposing
how his faith has seemed to have failed him in his life. This burdensome
feeling is apparent throughout, until the closing moments of the end.
This movie is interesting and Taylor’s
delivery of the themes related to the Christian subject are sincere.