year 5 day 153

movie: Christian Mingle
starring: Lacey Chabert, Corbin Bersen
genre:Drama, Romance
year:2014
format: Netflix Canada

plot: An ad executive feeling the pressure to get married and tired of the guys she's been meeting, joins a dating site for Christians, the only issue is she isn't.

So this movie has been popping up in my "we recommend" on Netflix Canada for a while now. And I have hummed and hawwed over it, as it looked just a little too drab.  It does have that made for tv movie feel, but I don't think that it was.

With that said, if you strip away the religion in this film, it is got a great point.  Yes, I said if you strip away the religion in it. The core of the story is a woman who has no idea who she really is anymore. She's lost in the daily grind, feeling like she should be part of something she's not, nor is she really ready to be. This is clear to a few of her friends, but not to her.  The opening scene is her on a date who would rather be with another woman, and then her talking to her best girlfriends about it.  Pretty much the start to any Hallmark style movie. 

She states out loud what she's looking for in a man, and the universe takes her at her word. That's when she starts seeing signs, literally a commercial that is haunting her, for a dating site.  Which she feels is a safe way to go, given it's a Christian site. The story shifts then to the fact she is lying about her personal beliefs and she looses the guy.

The character has to deal with the fact her life is not what she hoped it would be like once she got to her 30's. She's in a job she no longer loves, her friends no longer speak her language, and she's at the point where she sort of doesn't like herself. The big crossroads we all at some point end up at. Meeting the semi-wrong Mr. Right, makes her admit she's no longer on the same path she was before she met him. That her lifestyle is no longer fitting for her.

what did I learn? Strip away the religion part of this movie, and you have one of the most common themes in any genre. The crossroads of life story. The starting over, without realizing that's what you are doing. The idea that you are searching for item A, which leads you to item B, because what you really need is item C.  Be yourself and you'll find what you really need.