With “Courageous,” the Kendrick brothers finally have
an ensemble with all major and major-supporting roles filled with actors up to
par for the writing. Ken Bevel is back,
this time paired up with Alex Kendrick as the two leads. Robert Amaya is adorable as the hardworking
Javier, the only father not also a cop in the film. The wives and even the children turn in
strong, genuine performances, buoyed up by the ever-improving production
values.
But once again, the greatest strength of the film is in
the writing. The story is cleverly
constructed, pulling five different fathers in very different life
circumstances in to examine the importance of fatherhood, with the apt metaphor
of the police motto—“to protect and serve”—as the image of a father’s proper
role in a Christian home.
Again, the connections are deft, the humor is warm, the
illustration is strong, and the story is far from cliché or predictable. They are now working with some professionals
on the crew, and this shows in the production values. A standout example is a brief but striking
moment, a slow continuous pan past a house as people and cars fade in and out,
coming and going in the aftermath of a funeral, speaking volumes about the
family’s desolation and their visitors’ impotence to comfort in a few eloquent
seconds.
Don’t get the impression of a quiet, moody film,
though. These guys are cops, and the
movie begins with an action sequence that’ll get your heart rate up and
climaxes in a shoot out. It has got its
share of popcorn-spilling moments.
Unlike any of the previous three films, I was a bit
disappointed with the final scene of this one, for being just a bit too overtly
preachy. I’m not sure whether it just
isn’t Kendrick’s strongest point to speak from the pulpit (he does seem at his
best in the moments of greatest emotional vulnerability, rather than the
rousing ones), or whether the editing was just a tad too far in the “two by
four” mode; but especially the very last image of the film and the abrupt cut
from it felt awkward and a bit forced.
The speech is well written, and certainly justified in the context, but
somehow it just didn’t flow as smoothly as one would wish, especially after a
film which, for the most part, was the smoothest and strongest-flowing one yet
from Sherwood pictures. This minor
bobble aside, though, yet another definite keeper from the Kendrick
brothers.
I for one would love to see more, but if this is “all
she wrote” from these guys, I’d call it a strong and worthwhile legacy. 
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