The Best Man Holiday wears its faith on its tinsel-covered sleeve, and that’s rankling some movie critics.
The film, opening Friday, continues the saga of a group of friends which began with the 1999 sleeper hit The Best Man. Now, the same chums are reuniting for the holidays, swapping old stories and digging at fresh emotional wounds.
Along the way, the characters’ faith plays a major role in the film’s signature story twist.
The sequel isn’t being billed as a spiritual movie event along the lines of Soul Surfer or Fireproof. It’s rated R, and for good reason. The language is raw, the situations sexual and the banter is the kind you might hear in a men’s locker room. It’s still one of 2013’s most spiritual productions, giving God a starring role for much of the third act.
Syndicated critic Roger Moore noted the faithful subplot in his review, saying it stripped the movie of some of its buoyancy:
Tonally, it’s hard to reconcile the film’s raw bits with a shoehorned-in nod to faith. That weighs down “Holiday” and makes it overstay its welcome.
TheWrap.com’s review says all the Christianity talk is awkward, although he misses the point about sinners:
In both “Best Man” movies, Lee shoehorns in conversations about Jesus without much grace, but even the characters he treats like role models have no place being so didactic. Lance, for example, is constantly held up as this paragon of godly behavior, but he keeps stewing over Harper and Mia’s indiscretion all these years later.
Slant Magazine is troubled by the movie using faith as a balm in times of pain in its 1/2 star review:
[Writer/director Malcolm D. Lee] shamelessly milks one character’s terminal illness to reiterate the comforts of and struggles with Christ’s love ad nauseam.