Blue Like Jazz (not your 'come to Jesus' film)

Ever since seeing the film Blue Like Jazz this past Friday, I’ve been debating with myself whether or not to write a review for the film. After three separate viewings of it in the course of three days, I think it’s time that I do. 

Blue Like Jazz is a film based off the book, of the same title, by Donald Miller, and is about a young man, Don Miller, who after growing up a southern baptist in Texas, moves to Portland to attend Reed College, and while there begins to question the very faith and God that he grew up with. Before the movie’s release I kept seeing articles about whether this was going to be a religious or anti-religious film. What I’m going to tell you is that it is neither. It’s a journey into a young man’s life and the struggle that he has in not only finding God, but even more-so, himself. 

  

While everyone in the movie did a wonderful job, I want to focus on the main character/actor of the film. The film stars Marshall Allman, best known for his roles as LJ Burrows (Prison Break) and Tommy Mickens (True Blood) as Don.
Being one of my favorite actors, I was already excited, but after seeing the movie I don’t think I could even imagine anyone else in this role. His portrayal as Don is one of the most honest performances I’ve seen in a film in a rather long time. In the beginning of the film, Don is, for lack of a better word, awkward, though while still in Texas, and at his church, he doesn’t seem to be really out of place. It isn’t until he first arrives at Reed that this is more evident. With the way that he dresses, acts, and talks, Don is a fish out of water, but there is something awkwardly adorable about it. As the film progresses Don begins to become, in a nutshell, a sarcastic little anti-religious twat, who is always ready with some snarky remark. There were times in the film where Don frustrated me to no end, but despite how cynical he became, Marshall played him with such a boyish charm, that I couldn’t help but develop a love/hate relationship with him. If Marshall doesn’t get some sort of recognition for this role, I will be very surprised.

One of the things I loved most about Blue Like Jazz is just how relatable Don is. Like Don, I grew up going to church in Houston, Texas, and up until college it was all I really knew. I’d never questioned my beliefs, they just were. However, when I went away to college, that all changed. It wasn’t as drastic a change in scenery, geography-wise, but the majority of my friends didn’t have the same beliefs as I did, and I found myself starting to question God and even in a sense abandoning him, and like Don it all started out as an attempt to fit in with those around me. Even if you aren’t going through an existentialist crisis, it’s easy to put yourself in Don’s shoes because we’ve all done things in order to feel accepted by a group of people. Dyed our hair, changed our clothes, started to talk a different way, drank, done drugs, etc… At the end of the film, Don has discovered things about himself, but he is in no way perfect. He still has problems and questions that he’s working through, the same that we all do. 

Another thing that I enjoyed about the film is that while God and religion does take a large part in this film, it isn’t IN YOUR FACE about it. It’s also not cheesy or sappy, like some of the films that have been marketed as ‘Christian’ films seem to be. Nowhere in the film does it tell the audience ‘this is what you need to believe.’ Instead they show you the struggles that Don has with the church and the revelations that HE comes to. At the end of the movie there is a scene between Don and his friend, ‘the Pope’ (played by Justin Welborn), who is an atheist, that involves a rather beautiful speech that Don gives about how he felt about God, and he asks his friend to forgive him. Not once does Don ‘preach the gospel’ to him or give that sort of altar call feeling. However, he simply is vulnerable and honest to him, something that I feel made the scene that much more powerful. 

The honesty of this film has made it the best film that I’ve seen so far this year. It made me laugh, got me frustrated, and all three times I left the movie with a sense of hope and the inability to stop smiling. Blue Like Jazz is a movie that I would recommend for those that are upperclassmen in high school (juniors/seniors) and those that are in college or just out of it. Yes, those that are older than that should see it, but I feel that the ages stated could relate the most to the film. 

p.s. 

it is apparently a lot harder to damage a PT Cruiser than I thought.


5 out of 5 stars