It's about on the level of "Pat Boone talks to Teens about S-E-X" and "Tough Guys Find God".There was a story here. A tranche of Providence Italianosity. But those bits are just filler for the real story which is, I don't know, "Jesus Saves".Imagine a Catholic Woody Allen making his 1st HS film. He shows some family interaction (pretty good), then characters find a way to talk about whether or not god exists and question their own existences; introduce a sub-plot about the family store being sold (this is OK), then characters find a way to talk about whether or not god exists and question their own existences; the once ugly female lead is now a babe, then characters find a way to talk about whether or not god exists and question their own existences; keep repeating.The script is so contrived that it hurts your teeth; the characters and actors are bland; the story is right out of "Ministers talk to young people about STDs". Touchstone sucks and it's way better than this pap.It's awful and really should be a 1 or 0.

There are many movies that has a very stereotypical portraits of Christians - either they are all holy good(often in chrisitan movies) or they are all hippocrates(in non-chrisitan) - this one was different. The plot is based in a community where Christianity is kind of accepted, but traditionalized in the roman catholic way - and everyone come along quite well it seems. But the problem begins when someone, Joey, begins to take his faith more seriously(because of Mary). He does not become a holy man - but he struggles still in the search - and even when he believe he has found Him. Even Mary struggles somehow, both her strict chrisitan parents and Joey's devoted catholic mother - all do - in their own way. As in real life. And this is one of the few movies I have seen that being shown without making much effort to preach one type of Christianity. Neither does the movie cover up the message as so many Hollywood movies tend to do, and even some Christian movies.I can understand that people does not like and criticize this movie for the message it brings, because it is - believe it or not - Christian, but I cannot understand why people wish the movie had a more humanistic message like soooo many other Christian themed Hollywood movies often have. It would only ruin the movie, because the church and Christianity is not that, and it would make the movie lose its edge and reality aspect into a wishful thinking kind of chrisitiany of the directors mind only to please the world(major audience). It's easy to rate a movie bad, because you don't like the message, even thou the movie itself is not bad - I think this movie show that its right where it should be, and it does it pretty good.I love the fact that this movie IS a romantic comedy. I love romantic comedies. It's kinda typical in the storyline(but well made and acted) - but in addition you get the Christian theme that is one of my favorite subjects. It's also a typical comedy because of the characters, lines and warm humor etc. Too few movies, especially romantic comedies, like this are made.

This is a real disappointment for a film with such a fine cast. Despite the attempt to promote religious tolerance, understanding and disapproval of religious pretentiousness, it still comes across as an attempt to promote Anglo-American Christianity by using skeptics, who are, of course, presented as somewhat immoral characters.The film seems to be promoting a message that says "It's okay to accept others who are different then you, but only as long as they're devout, Anglo-American Christians", which, I suppose, is okay if you want to show the film in an Anglo-American church, but besides being somewhat pretentious, it's also just a boring subject.If I could re-write the script, I would re-write it so that the point it makes is that Christians aren't good people because they're Christians, but rather that good people are Christians because they're good people. This point seems to get lost in this film.

I laughed and was inspired as I watched this sensitive portrayal of a complex relationship between Joey, a young Roman Catholic, and a born-again young lady named Mary. The central characters were complex, not the one-dimensional types often seen in this kind of story. (I am tired of seeing born-again Christians portrayed as either "holier-than-thou" or hypocrites.) Additional characters were somewhat zany and made this a really funny movie to watch. I especially enjoyed the contrast between the two families, although they were too stereotypical. The most appealing feature of the movie is the development of the dynamic relationship between Joey and Mary and also the growth of Joey's character. The script was written by Vincent Pagano, the actor who played Joey, and I would like to see more from him.