I Still Believe (2020)

Directed by: Andrew Erwin, Jon Erwin | 116 minutes | biography, drama | Actors: KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Nathan Parsons, Gary Sinise, Shania Twain, Reuben Dodd, Nicolas Bechtel, Melissa Roxburgh, Terry Serpico, Tanya Christiansen, Cameron Arnett, Abigail Cowen, Rushi Birudala, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Mike McGill, Sahjanan Nasser

In certain circles he is regarded as a god and an idol: Jeremy Camp. Born in 1978, the American, son of a pastor, studied theology and met Melissa Henning during his studies. Their love for God and music brought them together and Camp’s talent made him break through to the masses. When Melissa became seriously ill, the young couple (both in their early twenties) decided to get married. ‘I Still Believe’ tells the story of Jeremy, Melissa and their faith.

We meet Jeremy (KJ Apa) when he leaves for college. His mentally handicapped brother is having a hard time with it and because of the scene in which we see how Jeremy cleverly solves this, his character is portrayed as loving, caring and creative. Still, it takes him a little more effort to impress Melissa (Britt Robertson). She is a fellow student whom he meets at a concert by Jean-Luc, a Christian rocker. Just before that, we saw how Jeremy managed to get backstage at ‘the reason he came to study here’ (that same Jean-Luc).

Melissa has been friends with Jean-Luc for a while, but lately he has feelings for her that “she doesn’t reciprocate”. Despite her love for Jeremy, she doesn’t want to admit it at first. A date continues, but Melissa wants to keep their relationship a secret because she doesn’t want to hurt Jean-Luc. Whether this is true or a means of adding weight to the screenplay, it’s a weird motivator and doesn’t help to make you feel the destined love between Jeremy and Melissa. The calibrated compilation – no matter how cheesy – does turn the meter to the positive side.

Anyway: the love may only be revealed when there is actually no more to enjoy outright: Melissa turns out to have cancer, but is treated with good hope: first an operation, then chemotherapy. Jeremy is already drawing full houses and during one of those concerts he calls on the audience to all pray for his fiancée. That may feel inspiring to some people, but it mostly comes across as a way to propel the plot and Jeremy’s career forward. Nowhere does Melissa – although Britt Robertson is certainly not bad – becomes a full-fledged character; which of course is initially due to her strange introduction, but later on she doesn’t get much more to do than get frustrated with her diminished strength and talk about how beautiful God paints with stars. Oh and then there’s her bond with her sister, who is mentioned, but barely made tangible.

There is even more wrong with the film: in addition to too little background information about Melissa, Jeremy’s career goes without explanation. The momentum is regularly off and it doesn’t get really emotional, because the love between the two feels so forced.

The end of the film leaves no doubt about the filmmaker’s intention: ‘I Still Believe’ is not a story about the love between two people, but how the death of a loved one and whether or not God’s hand in it can lead to it that others draw inspiration from it. Fine for those who are touched by that, but there is a good chance that you will find this film too long-winded and flat.