Movie Review: Father Stu (2022)

Father Stu (2022) written and directed by Rosalind Ross

Stuart Long (Mark Wahlberg) lives a hard life. He grew up with a very difficult father (Mel Gibson) and decided to be a boxer. His boxing career is going nowhere. After a fight, he is diagnosed with an ailment that stops him from boxing. Not one to give up (especially on himself), Stuart moves to Los Angeles to become a movie star. He gets a job in a supermarket where he sees a beautiful young woman name Carmen (Teresa Ruiz) who has no interest in him because he is not Catholic. Not one to give up, he starts showing up at church and even gives becoming a Christian a try. He still leads a rough life and has a hard relationship with his parents. Then he crashes his motorcycle, causing some severe injuries. He has a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary who comforts him and tells him he still has a purpose. After much prayer and thought, Stu decides he is being called to the priesthood. Carmen laughs at him and the seminary rector (Malcolm McDowell) initially turns him down. Not one to give up, he argues his way into seminary and out of a potential wedding. He doesn't fit in well with the other seminarians but continues on.

The movie is based on a true story and exemplifies a certain character that pops up again and again in church history--the fallen man who becomes a Godly man. Francis of Assisi wanted to be a soldier fighting in glorious wars; Ignatius of Loyola fought in wars and was forced, during the boredom of recuperation, to read the Bible and the lives of the saints. Stu is in this tradition and we get a good gander at the brokenness of his life. He's invested in himself and wants to be a self-made man. He's slowly taken away from himself, at first using his selfishness to get him to do things that are outside of himself, like getting baptized. The movie does a good job portraying his genuine conversion and his struggles, both with himself and with everyone else. He understands his own problems, which enables him to help others. He can see their brokenness and has the moral authority of his own experience to share with them and to provide genuine counsel. It's a moving conversion story.

Just a warning, it's also a R-rated conversion story, with a lot of cussing and bodily injuries (from boxing and from the bike accident). There's also one very discreet sex scene and some sexual references. This movie is for adults, not for family movie night.

Recommended.