This is supposed to be the story of a preacher's kid and his family after they move into a small southern town where a local high school golden boy committed suicide a year ago. The preacher's kid joins the basketball team and immediately runs into problems with the dead teen's younger brother.
Despite having some attractive young talent, the story had a number of structural plot flaws and the low budget showed painfully much of the time. Much of the action revolved around scenes on the basketball court, both practices and games. Now I'm not much of a sports fan but having a high school basketball team with only eight players (and about 15 cheerleaders) seems a bit off to me.
Some of the awkward plot flaws included the preacher's kid meeting the dead teens ex-girlfriend in the woods. The dialogue somehow managed to be wooden and inorganic at the same time.
There was also a dinner party that was the worst conceived since Titus Andronicus.
I think that a movie about a Christian family moving into a town where there's been a teen suicide is a good idea. I'd still like to see a movie about that, just not this one.
Plot summary
Michael is not thrilled about his family's move to New Hope, a small, close-knit southern town. After all, it is his senior year. He is even less enthused about joining the town's high school basketball team, especially when he begins to bump heads with the team's star player, Lucas. Lucas is fiercely loyal to the memory of his brother Chase -- the victim of a suicide that shook the entire town to its core. To Lucas, Michael is reaping everything Chase left behind -- an insult he refuses to accept. Jasmine, Chase's longtime girlfriend, still has not found peace a year after his tragic death -- until a chance meeting with Michael. Michael's faith is tested as he endures confrontations with Lucas on and off the basketball court and through his growing fascination with Jasmine. With topics including peer pressure, alcohol, sex, suicide, relationships, and acceptance, New Hope captures the life of the modern teenager.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
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720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Lotta missed potential
Good for (older) family..
Overall, good message and a complete cliché as a Christian movie. I like to see a balance of reality with Christian faith and this movie does a nice job being real with the characters. I say good for an "older" family because of the way a condom is integrated into the plot in a very pivotal way. Meaning, your pre-teens and younger youth might have a few questions after viewing about contraceptives.. the feedback on the parental content advisory of "student is tempted to have sex" is insufficient. The temptation and the character's response and behavior as a result is central to 5-10 minutes of the film. Hard to just casually play past it and not have unanswered questions for younger viewers.
Nevertheless, for a family of teenagers this will be a good discussion item as you can review the different characters, their behaviors, differences in values, etc.
Hope springs eternal
A new preacher has come from Colorado to the Louisiana town of New Hope and they've got the usual problems of settling in the new place that we all have. Especially Samuel Davis who is a high school senior and not wanting to start all over again in a new place. Some families would have boarded their son with another family until the senior term was up.
But not this family because as it turns out he's got a destiny, that is to save New Hope's star athlete Ben Davies from an overpowering grief and lead the team to a state championship. Davies has never gotten over the suicide of his younger brother, feels he should have spotted something. That doesn't work in a lot of instances even when it is not a subject for a Christian film.
It also doesn't help that Davis is now taking up with Perry Frost who was the deceased brother's girlfriend. Most of the film Davies is having a chip on his shoulder.
I have to confess when I saw the title I thought this might be a gay film. Possibly the producers didn't know that New Hope, Pennsylvania is a popular gay tourist spot. Or maybe they thought they'd get a gay customer or two to watch the film and be saved.
Of course the fact that the kid brother who suicided might have been gay and not found a lot of support in this Bible belt town. Something I have never seen addressed in any Christian film, but it's the number one cause for suicide among teens.
And you sure won't see that issue brought up in New Hope.