Susan Granger’s review of “The Ultimate Gift” (Fox Faith)
According to a recent USA Today article, Americans get an ‘F’ in religion, revealing an appalling lack of knowledge about Bible basics, core beliefs, stories and symbols. So it’s no wonder that Fox Faith, a subsidiary of 20th Century-Fox, fills the gap, creating spiritually-based “message” entertainment that could substitute as a Sunday School class.
Based on Jim Stovall’s self-help book that has apparently sold more than three million copies, “The Ultimate Gift” won the Crystal Heart at the 2006 Heartland Festival.
Jason Stevens (Drew Fuller of “Charmed”) is a lazy trust-fund loafer who is stunned when the video-taped Will of his recently-deceased, but estranged billionaire grandfather offers him a series of 12 tasks (i.e.: gifts), forming a crash course on self-discovery. He must accept these challenges in order to learn the monetary amount of his inheritance. En route, Jason gets kidnapped and imprisoned in a Central American jungle and befriends a spunky, precocious child, Emily (Abigail Breslin of “Little Miss Sunshine”), who is dying of leukemia, while falling in love with her single mother (Ali Hillis).
Watching it, I was reminded of “Brewster’s Millions,” minus the comedy. Screenwriter Cheryl McKay and director Michael O. Sajbel (“One Night with the King”) predictably fall into several cloying, melodramatic pitfalls while teaching Jason to become a useful member of society and, thereby, become worthy of his windfall.
Jason Stevens delivers a bland, one-note performance but some veteran thespians make memorable appearances: James Garner as the grandfather, Brian Dennehy as a Texas cattle rancher, and Bill Cobbs as the Estate lawyer. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Ultimate Gift” is a wholesome, inspirational 5, preaching a simplistic “prosperity gospel” which is then reiterated in a final compilation during the end credits.
