Movie Review: "Christian Mingle: The Movie"

Synopsis: Gwyneth Hayden (Lacey Chabert) has been very unlucky in love; her friends have all gotten engaged or married, while she hasn't even had a serious relationship in a while.  In hopes of finding Mr. Right, she joins the dating site Christian Mingle; problem is, she doesn't know much about the Christian faith, and hasn't been to church in years.  Soon after joining, she meets Paul, who she immediately falls for.  She tells Paul and his family that she is a Christian, hoping that they'll believe her.  When her ruse is discovered, will it be permanent splitsville for Gwyneth and Paul?

The Good: The only compliment I have about this movie is its soundtrack; it's great to hear songs from Christian artists ranging from TobyMac to Mandisa to Andraé Crouch, though it's also a shame that such good music is wasted on this effort.

The Bad: Wow; where to start? The Christians in this movie do not act like people of the Way should; instead of guiding Gwyneth to the faith, they judge her.  Paul, who is supposed to be her Mr. Right, is a jerk and rather despicable; after what he said to her toward the end of the movie, she should have never spoken to him again.  One of the "Christian"characters is even played by Morgan Fairchild, who played a temptress in a live production of The Graduate, for crying out loud.  The ending is too pat, and a post-credits scene shows Gwyneth and Paul kissing passionately while sitting on their couch under a blanket, when they're not married; I'm a lifelong single, but I know what that could lead to!  Even the closed captioning is among the worst I've seen in twenty years of watching shows and movies with it turned on; it was both lagging and poorly written! The biggest complaint I have, though, is that this film makes light of non-Christians pretending to be of the faith, which is not a good thing, and something I have personal history with; more on that in the next section.

Conclusion: Those of you who know me know that I'm a child of divorce; what you may not know is that, though my mom was raised in the church and became a Christian at a young age, my biological father never was...though they met in a church building, and got married because he conned her into thinking that he was a member of the Way.  It's a decision I'm sure she still regrets to this day.  Due to that family history, I've always been wary about sites such as Christian Mingle; while I know many people--including some friends--have found true love that way, I'm afraid that I might go to meet someone who I think is my dream girl, only to end up robbed at gunpoint, raped, or fatally stabbed.  You may call that paranoia, but look at the history I just described; can you blame me? So, for this film to make light of people who aren't of the faith joining a Christian dating website is just unthinkable; it's pretty much a slap in the face, and makes me even less inclined to join such a site, especially since the "Christian" characters are judgmental jerks.  If it weren't for the soundtrack, this would be tied with C Me Dance as the worst Christian movie I've ever seen.

Score: 1/5