This is a Christian based film with dialog that you'd probably hear kids saying in Sunday school but outside the preacher's kid not all that much on a little league ball field. The story takes place in a small Alabama town in 1974 and deals with the introduction of an autistic kid with impressive skills at hitting the ball way over the fence. After initial bullying of the kid from classmates ends, they have to deal with the bullying from other local teams, but the team becomes the one to watch as his skills keep helping them win games.
"Nobody will ever make a movie about Spider Man", one of the kids says, an attempt to appeal to modern audiences with an inside joke. This film has a great message of acceptance and anti-bullying, but you're not going to hold the audience with preachy church scenes. Even as a spiritual person, I felt it was overdone in certain ways, with the kids talking like ministers in school hallways and basing their whole existence on beliefs some viewers will find extreme.
John Schneider is the only known actor in the film, playing the coach, with Grayson Russell just fine as Rafer, the autistic boy. The script is the issue, with the kids not always seeming like real kids, and the adults all so kind and perfect, even Rusty Whitener as Rafer's embittered white trash father. This is a world maybe not bully free but far nicer than any community I've ever been to or read about, so it's hard to take seriously. But for the message of acceptance when not thumping the viewer over the head with it, there is a good intention. Technically, there are a few scenes where the camera work is very poor, like an experiment that didn't work. Minus the preachy moments, this would clock in at a little under an hour, so those who watch it and get annoyed by being preached at will have 20 minutes of ear covering.
"Nobody will ever make a movie about Spider Man", one of the kids says, an attempt to appeal to modern audiences with an inside joke. This film has a great message of acceptance and anti-bullying, but you're not going to hold the audience with preachy church scenes. Even as a spiritual person, I felt it was overdone in certain ways, with the kids talking like ministers in school hallways and basing their whole existence on beliefs some viewers will find extreme.
John Schneider is the only known actor in the film, playing the coach, with Grayson Russell just fine as Rafer, the autistic boy. The script is the issue, with the kids not always seeming like real kids, and the adults all so kind and perfect, even Rusty Whitener as Rafer's embittered white trash father. This is a world maybe not bully free but far nicer than any community I've ever been to or read about, so it's hard to take seriously. But for the message of acceptance when not thumping the viewer over the head with it, there is a good intention. Technically, there are a few scenes where the camera work is very poor, like an experiment that didn't work. Minus the preachy moments, this would clock in at a little under an hour, so those who watch it and get annoyed by being preached at will have 20 minutes of ear covering.