Counter Column suffers from many of the same issues as other films whose primary mission is to proselytize the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Namely, every dramatic avenue can be helpfully boiled down to the characters’ need to pray – for answers to their problems, for guidance on how to find those answers, for the act of confessing or professing or whatever might spark that act of religious supplication. Those who have been brought up in church and under the strictures of a religion will understand this, and co-writer/director Gilbert Sorola’s film falls victim to the usual dramatic stasis of the faith-based drama.
This one, though, is a couple of shades better than the worst of the recent spate of these movies, likely because there is an attempt at genuine engagement with the act of faith in one-half of the story being told in Sorola, Matthew Jordan and Laura Starkey’s screenplay. The crux of the drama for Anthony Mendoza (Chris Gonzales, in the closest thing to a decent performance among the otherwise imprecise ensemble), one of the three central characters of the movie, is that he simply doesn’t understand how God could love him after the life he has led.
A brief prologue tells us that his brother was killed in a drive-by shooting, and coupling that with an existence in a part of the neighborhood where drug dealing was the only way to put food on the table, we come to understand Anthony’s long-term predicament. He has grown up to be bitter, violence-prone, and with the expectation of being the alpha male in any and every situation. That makes entering the United States Army and quickly rising to platoon leader in Basic Military Training kind of a frightening option for a young man with few scruples and a lot of misplaced machismo.
Keeping time with Anthony’s story is the other, far less involving half of the plot. Chris Wright (Nathan-Andrew Hight) is a doubtful Christian whose faith is hanging by a thread. His stepfather has offered him a job, but he would rather join the Army – which he does, without telling his girlfriend Beth (Liz Andrews), alongside his best friend Jason Neil (Michael Kaiser), who happens to be Beth’s brother. Inevitably, Chris and Jason cross paths with Anthony at BMT, where a pair of drill sergeants (Rob Mendenhall III and Ezra Anderson) with opposing approaches to their job will test the wills of these three and the rest of the trainees.
The weeks pass. Chris and Jason attempt to fit in with the rest of the platoon. Anthony begins committing petty thefts and blaming it on Chris, whom he mocks for his faith. Back home, Beth is killed in a car accident on the way to school. Jason, being Beth’s direct family, is sent home to attend the funeral, while Chris is made to stay and mourn, from afar, the life that might have been and now will never be. Anthony reflects on his own loss of a sibling, and the sudden realization that the young men who were his targets of ire and derision have somehow kept their faith – and with the nudging of the more sympathetic drill sergeant and the Army chaplain (Donte Wilburn) – he begins to turn toward God as the answer to his prayers.
The pieces are here, then, for a tough-minded film about the hard work of keeping one’s faith, but the screenwriters are either unable or unwilling to truly engage with that concept. Counter Column is no slouch when it comes to giving us at least one character more than worthy of exploring, but it doesn’t follow through with any actual exploration.
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