Common Sense Media Review
By Tracy Moore
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Heavy-handed Christian drama tries to recruit new believers.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Ring the Bell
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Rob Decker (Ryan Sharoun) is a big-shot sports agent looking to sign a young baseball player. Trouble is, the player is intent on going to college first, so Decker heads out to spend time with him and his community, hoping to convince him to bypass academia for the big leagues. But the more he learns about the players and the lives they lead, the more he begins to question everything, including his own life, work, and faith.
Is It Any Good?
RING THE BELL starts out innocently enough. Here's a story about a hard-charging sports agent whose cockiness all but begs for a takedown, and there's some baseball thrown in to boot. The problem is, you don't expect the takedown to be quite so long-winded or quite so overt a sell on Christianity. What follows are a serious of scenes of sincere, long, thoughtful conversations about God, faith, and change and a host of characters full of preternaturally deep, folksy, Bible-quoting wisdom. Everyone is saintly in his or her devotion to goodness; each is waiting patiently for as long as it takes for the main character to come around. There are scenes designed to show the goodness of Christians, but they're sentimental and overwrought: a pair of siblings who run an orphanage whose own parents then died in a plane crash, making them orphans; an entire Christian music performance, sermon, and call to confess wedged in the middle of the film. It veers into caricature before it can preach to anyone but the choir and renders everything in black and white. There are people who believe and people who don't, and it's highly doubtful anyone who doesn't is going to find inspiration here.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the film's message. What was the main point of the film? Did you find it convincing? Why, or why not?
Was Rob Decker a bad person? What does the film say about his priorities? Do you agree with him?
Do you think it's smart for athletes to have a backup plan? Why, or why not?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : April 9, 2013
- Cast : Casey Bond , Ryan Scharoun
- Director : Thomas Weber
- Studio : ARC Entertainment
- Genre : Drama
- Run time : 91 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 20, 2019
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