'The Genesis Code' barely escapes being buried by very weighty material
Published: Thursday, August 26, 2010, 10:00 AM Updated: Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 10:23 AM
By John Serba | The Grand Rapids Press
You can't say "The Genesis Code" isn't ambitious.
In a world brimming over with films about killer mutant animals (fish, spiders, bunnies, etc.) eating humans, it's hard to criticize any movie that's overstuffed with ideas. "Code," from a primarily Christian point of view, gamely aims to show us how science and religion can have a symbiotic relationship, instead of being at odds. This involves temporarily halting a modestly engaging story of two young people and their personal and philosophical problems, for a lengthy sequence, rife with computer-animated graphics, in which a group of inspired college students share their religio-scientific breakthrough and its many intricate details.
Interesting, yes, but it's a large enough chunk of the movie that you want to nudge the narrative and remind it that someone is dying. That would be the mother of Blake Truman (Logan Bartholomew). She's in a coma, and he's fighting the legal document she signed, stating that life support should be shut off. This puts him at odds with his grandparents (Ernest Borgnine and Louise Fletcher), and distracts him from his duties as Madison College's hockey star.
Blake meets Kerry Wells (Kelsey Sanders), who wants to interview him for the school paper. He agrees. Within moments, she reveals that she's "chaste," and he sneeringly belittles her Christian faith. A follow-up interview occurs at a bar with Blake's friends, who ridicule her and compare the Bible to "Harry Potter." She brushes it off.
REVIEW: 2 1/2 OUT OF 4 STARS
'The Genesis Code'
Rated: PG for thematic elements, some innuendo
Cast: Logan Bartholomew, Kelsey Sanders, C.R. Lewis, Ernest Borgnine
Directors: C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Read Johnson
Run time: 135 minutes
Kerry, a journalism-paleontology double major, is used to debate. She unwaveringly wields her Christianity while questioning her paleontology prof's lectures, contending that "science will catch up with the Bible." Her brother Marc (Adam Chambers) is a physicist and a non-believer. Her father (Jerry Zandstra) is a minister. Everyone lives in the same house and co-exists peacefully, as people do. Her personal conflict arises via her academic advisor (Catherine Hicks), a stereotype of an academia elitist who arrogantly declares, "You must accept the reality of the postmodern world!"
Although the film tends to believe wordy, heady speeches pass for realistic dialogue, Sanders and Bartholomew provide a solid emotional core for their characters' quests for truth and guidance. They share some tangible chemistry -- Blake and Kerry are friends first, and romance takes a back seat to larger issues -- and C.R. Lewis adds to it, with a strong performance as Blake's go-to best friend and roommate, Shane.
"Code," which was shot in the Grand Rapids area and debuted Wednesday at the Grand Rapids Film Festival, admirably and passionately attempts to answer the question of life, the universe and everything in a new, fresh manner, yet remain rooted in the tenets of the Christian faith (especially at the climax). But it also seems to build a story around a vast concept, instead of letting the concept organically emerge from human drama. It may not possess the dramatic potency of "Inherit the Wind," but it has good intentions, and it approaches the science-vs.-faith debate in a way we likely haven't seen before.
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