Father Stu

Father Stu

5/3/2022 2h 4m 7.2/10

Overview

The true-life story of boxer-turned-priest. When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to Los Angeles to find money and fame. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. However, a motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others, leading to the surprising realization that he's meant to be a Catholic priest.

Director

Rosalind Ross

Top Billed Cast

Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg

Father Stuart 'Stu' Long

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

Bill Long

Malcolm McDowell

Malcolm McDowell

Monsignor Kelly

Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver

Kathleen Long

Annet Mahendru

Annet Mahendru

Mary

Teresa Ruiz

Teresa Ruiz

Carmen

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

5/29/2022

6/10

Mark Wahlberg is competent here as the eponymous boxer who takes a shine to the young church-going Carmen (Teresa Ruiz). He can't get near her, so he somewhat opportunistically decides to join her church and see if that helps. Thing is, pretty quickly he discovers that there is something to this "God" thing, and decides to try and get himself ordained for the priesthood - leaving all thoughts of the girl behind. Meantime, he discovers that he is suffering from a degenerative disease that will prove debilitating as he ages. It's one of those inspirational stories this, but I just didn't particularly like or empathise with "Stu". I found his profound and fairly sudden Damascine conversion hardly explained in the context of the film and except for a few decent contributions from the always reliable Jacki Weaver (his mother) the rest of this was all a bit lacking in substance. I never felt like I knew what made this man tick! It is nice to see Malcom McDowell back on the screen, and Mel Gibson is perfectly adequate as his rather indifferent father - but sadly, this whole film is a just another, sometimes touching, biopic of one man of many who live to inspire through their church (or not) whilst facing adversities and trials that trouble many people. It is watchable, but I'm afraid equally forgettable.

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