Run the Race

"Run the Race" is a faith-based movie about brothers, young love, family and beliefs. Brothers Dave (Evan Hofer) and Zach (Tanner Stine) are the brothers who lost their mother to cancer two years ago and their father Michael (Kristoffer Polaha), unable to handle the death, walked out leaving the boys to fend for themselves while he sought solace in alcohol. Their godmother, Nanny (Frances Fisher) supports them by having the boys work in her store while football Coach Haily (Mykelti Williamson) has their backs, believing in them and helping them to reach their goals. The brothers have an unbreakable bond, with Dave being religious and Zach losing his faith both, wanting to succeed and leave their small Alabama town when Zach wins a football scholarship. When Zach hurts his leg he meets a nurse intern, Ginger, (Kelsey Reinhardt), in what becomes a delightful cat and mouse chase where religion enters the pictures with both a negative and positive force. While religion adds heft to the drama of the story a little less would have allowed for expanding for more about the main characters, such as the father and Zach and Ginger's relationship, but since the writers Jake McEntire, Jason Baumgardner and Chris Dowling, basically, follow the cliches of religion and relationships some people may roll their eyes but more will just go with where it leads. Chris Dowling also directed the film which strays now and then while the soundtrack has a few winning songs. All the actors do a first-rate job. Hofer and Stine are quite believable as brothers, athletes, older teenagers who have that unbreakable bond. The romance between Stine and Reinhardt has the needed chemistry with his charisma and her beauty adding to a predictable story with one exception. It was good seeing the familiar face of Frances Fisher who truly loves the boys as if they were her own and all boys should have a coach supporting them as Mykelti Williamson. It would have been nice if Kristoffer Polaha had more screen time but what he does is impressive. "Run the Race" was an unexpected film that I found much better than I thought it would be having both laughs and tears along with a story, for the most part, will hold your attention. PS I am a **** for a love story and a father/son story!

I was fully prepared to give this a positive review. There were the typical issues that almost always seem to plague faith-based films such as low production values, amateurish acting, and awkward writing/pacing, but the bond of brotherly love that kept the endearing protagonists going in the face of adversity was uplifting and warm. I was genuinely having a good time at the theater. Then the ending happened... The final act is capped off by a sad event that was just exploitative and unnecessary. What bothered me wasn't so much that it happened, but rather how it was handled. The scene is montaged in with the film's emotional crescendo eliminating any sort of big payoff. Then to make matters worse the writers immediately tried to gloss over the act as if it never even happened by moving right along to the happy ending, robbing the moment of any sort of meaning. The whole thing was nothing more than a tasteless and even offensive attempt to manipulate tears out of the audience. It added nothing to the movie and only served to diminish my enjoyment of it. I now better understand the whole Mass Effect 3 ending debacle. I was also disappointed with the game's conclusion, but at the same time I just couldn't understand how so many people found those last 10 minutes or so able to overwrite all the previous hours of enjoyment that were had before hand. I think I get it now. It's not even like Run the Race is the first movie to try and use that trick to pull an emotional reaction the audience. Far from it. It's actually a fairly common development in sports dramas. However, what has saved these other movies from the same rebuttal is that they at least allowed the moment to carry weight in the story by bolstering the overall theme of perseverance. Here it's just cheap shock value.