AVERAGE JOE
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Such is the First Amendment to the Constitution, and these simple words have been fought over ever since. Average Joe, based on the Supreme Court case Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District, wants to avoid the trappings of a "Christian" film. It is unfortunate that, despite an interesting story and some good performances, what Average Joe thinks distinguish it end up hampering it.
Intercut with a series of interviews between Joseph Anthony Kennedy (Eric Close) and his wife Denise (Amy Acker), Average Joe reveals how this ordinary man got to his situation. Abandoned as a child, young Joey (Ezra Richardson) was adopted into a large family that was not horrible but was not particularly welcoming. Joey's only positive was the metaphorical girl next door Denise (Annabelle Holloway), whom he quickly fell in love with and whose parents were constantly fighting. Eventually abandoned by his adoptive family, Joey makes his way through life the best he can.
That involves joining the Marines, where young Joe (Austin Woods) does well while maintaining correspondence with Denise (Andrea Figliomeni). He does come back only to find Denise engaged to someone else, so he does the most logical thing in the world. He marries her cousin. Denise's first husband is himself abusive, Joe's first wife and he drift apart especially after his deployment to Iraq, but after decades he and Denise finally marry.
Things, while not perfect, are moving along. Joe, attempting to be there for his wife after she suffers health issues, has a renewal of faith. He is pursued by Smiling Sam (Exie Booker) to join the local high school football coaching staff. Eventually seeing this as something for God, Coach Kennedy is born. He is a good Coach, but he wants to honor God. The way he does so is by going to the 50-yard line to offer a simple prayer, win or lose, after every game. His way with the boys and sincerity wins him the respect of the players, who ask to join him. That alarms school officials, who put the squeeze on Coach Kennedy to curtain his religious activities. He does so, once, and instantly regrets it. The next game, over objections, he goes back to his 50-yard prayer.
The school declines to renew his contract and Coach experiences ostracism. A simple Facebook post about his plight launches a court case that reaches the Supreme Court. The Kennedys experience hard times, especially as Denise works at the school district in Human Resources. Will Coach Kennedy be allowed to freely practice his religion or will he be found to be trying to establish one?
Average Joe begins in a surprisingly startling manner for a film billed as a faith-based production. We see our protagonist, riding the back of a truck, whooping and hollering while attempting to rope a horse wearing only his underwear and a hat. The film then immediately cuts to the faux interview of Coach and Mrs. Kennedy, the latter insisting that it did not happen that way and the former stating that there was less clothing involved. "I'm no choir boy," Kennedy tells us directly.
My sense is that screenwriter Stephanie Katz and director Harold Cronk did not want to give viewers the impression that Coach and Mrs. Kennedy were holy people but rather whole people, flawed, imperfect and with a lot of baggage. In short, Average Joe (which I figure is a pun on both the ordinariness of Kennedy as well as on his first name) wants us to see the leads as sinners.
On that level, Average Joe does a good thing. It is interesting that I have complained for many years that many Christian-based films had characters completely unaware of what sin was. The characters in many Christian-based films are very sanitized, not perfect but never doing such things as drinking or fornicating. One wonders why such people need God if they have little to nothing to be redeemed of.
That is not my biggest issue with Average Joe. My biggest issue is that the film almost maddeningly gives us a winking to the camera style that stubbornly reminds us that this is a movie. We start with them telling us that they are aware that Average Joe is a movie. The film awkwardly pauses to try to be meta in pointing out that they are in a movie. For example, there is a scene where Joe and Denise finally kiss. At that point, fireworks start firing behind them. Average Joe stops things cold by having Acker's Denise tell us that this is all fiction because there were no fireworks going off. "That's how I remember it," Close's Coach quips.
Bits like those, I think, pleased the audience. I, however, sat in frustration, growing more irritated at Average Joe's self-awareness. Due to moments like these, other moments lose the impact the film aimed at. After Coach goes back onto the field and asks God for forgiveness for wimping out and caving to pressure, the stadium lights go out. Coach is taken by surprise, wondering if perhaps this is some kind of sign. I was expecting someone to comment that it did not happen that way, but no one did.
A little self-awareness is fine, almost clever. Incessant callbacks to "we know this is a movie" undercut the drama. That is a real shame, because there are times when Average Joe has genuine moving moments. It is difficult if not impossible to not feel a lump in your throat seeing young Joey get beaten up by life at such a young age. After spending a great camping weekend bonding with his adoptive father despite being expelled from yet another school, they arrive to find that it was all a way to soften the blow when Joey is sent away. Later, he runs away from the group home he was sent and rushes back to his home, pleading to the door that he will change, only for him to find that his family has left the home. His screams of frustration and pain hit the viewer hard.
Another moving moment is when Kennedy goes to the altar and asks God for guidance, strength and acceptance. Denise, who is nominally a Christian but who has struggled with her own faith, goes to him at the altar and the two share a quiet moment. Close's acting here in particular got to me, which took me by surprise.
Another thing that took me by surprise is how Average Joe might have gone overboard in making Kennedy such a regular guy that he came across as basically clueless about even routine elements of his faith. When Joe talks to someone opposed to his 50-yard prayers, his opponent tells him, "You're like Peter". Kennedy replies, "Peter who?". In order to explain to this born-again Christian who this "Peter" he was talking about was, his opponent has to use the analogy of the Caped Crusader. Just as Batman had Robin, Jesus had the Apostle Peter. Kennedy remarks that he is no Biblical scholar but understands the parallel. I was left rather dumbstruck that Kennedy could be so unaware of this part of his faith. I get if someone had quoted him a passage from the Letter of Philemon or the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, but to need a Batman & Robin analogy to understand who the Apostle Peter?
Eric Close did a good job as Kennedy. He has moving moments, such as when he asks God for guidance or when he is reunited with an old mentor who encourages him to fight. He can be amusing, such as when he gets a visit from a religious rights group, First Liberty. Trying to remember who the man is, Close's Kennedy finally says, "You're the Liberty Bell guy", clearly muddling things in a way comprehensible to him. Another nice bit is when Denise suggests that he agree to the school district's request that he go to a private area for his prayers. As she keeps speaking, he leaves her midsentence and goes into a closet. "What are you doing?", she says, flummoxed. "I'm praying," he retorts, clearly ridiculing her suggestion without needing to say so.
Amy Acker was weaker as Denise, who at times looked almost bored by things. I will put some of that on the screenplay, which left some questions unanswered. Why did Smiling Sam so pursue Kennedy for a coaching position? What happened to Joe and Denise's kids? Why did we get so many "winking at the camera" moments? Why does Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson pop up at the end to explain how Kennedy vs. Bremerton overturns Lemon vs. Kurtzman? Moreover, how did Robertson end up the voice and face of modern American evangelical Christianity?
Oddly, the court case went by surprisingly fast, leaving little impact on the overall story.
This is an interesting story but not told well. I think Average Joe made a terrible mistake by trying to be too clever, too meta with the material. Yes, the Kennedys are flawed people. Yes, you can have a framing device of an interview to go over their lives pre-Kennedy vs. Bremerton. However, because those moments kept barging in, I feel Average Joe ends up slightly below average.
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