The Ultimate Gift (2007)
Directed by Michael Sajbel
Written by Cheryl McKay
Starring Abigail Breslin, Drew Fuller, Bill Cobbs, James Garner
Release Date March 9th, 2007
Published March 10th, 2007
Cynically trading on the Oscar nomination of young Abigail Breslin is the religious themed drama The Ultimate Gift. This film from the newly minted Fox Faith distribution company is Fox's even more cynical attempt to turn a profit on religion. In the wake of Passion of the Christ we have seen more and more of these religious dramas and with their low budgets and relative returns; they aren't likely to improve in quality anytime soon.
Jason (Drew Fuller) has drifted through life on his mom's money for many years. Naturally, with privilege paying for his high class New York apartment and expensive car, Drew values nothing above vanity. However, his life is changed forever by the death of his grandfather Red (James Garner). It's not that Jason was close with his grandfather, indeed grandpa wasn't close to anyone in his family. No, it's just that grandpa decided on his death to use his money to teach his wayward grandson a lesson.
With the help of his lawyer (Bill Cobbs) Red has set up a series of challenges for Jason. First, he forces Jason's mom to cut off his money. This costs Jason his apartment and his beloved car. Jason must prove that without his money he still has friends. This is much harder than he would have imagined. This is when Jason meets Emily (Abigail Breslin). Sleeping on a park bench, Jason is thought to be a homeless man.
Emily offers him food and soon Jason is scheming to have the girl and her mother Alexia (Ali Hillis) pretend to be his friends. Unfortunately, that still isn't enough for Jason to get his money. There are more challenges, including working on the ranch owned by Gus (Brian Dennehy) one of Red's best friends, to teach him hard work. Of course all of these valuable less are meant to make Jason a better person and wouldn't you it, the little girl and her mom have a secret that will also influence Jason's becoming a better person.
Directed by Michael O'Sajbel, The Ultimate Gift is like an unfunny version of the Richard Pryor comedy Brewster's Millions. Both films are about learning the value of a dollar and how money, having it and not having, teaches a valuable lesson. Brewster's Millions thankfully, isn't weighed down by biblical piety and dull melodrama as The Ultimate Gift is.
Director Michael O'Sajbel has been rather indignant about his film being treated as or marketed as a faith movie. He might want to look at the distributor shingle hanging on the front of the film. It's a new division of the Fox movie company called Fox Faith. A reaction what marketers had hoped was a new niche in the wake of The Passion Of the Christ.
Unfortunately, that niche has proven unreliable and movies like The Ultimate Gift, Amazing Grace and September Dawn have been made for an audience that may not even exist. Certainly, there was a vocal group of people who went to see the Passion and talked openly of how they rarely go to the movies because of their negative impression of Hollywood filmmakers.
In reality, most churchgoers are just average moviegoers who would rather watch swashbuckling pirates, spider based heroes and big green ogres rather than some self serving pseudo religious drama. Churchgoers, even the evangelicals, are as starstruck as any other audience and would rather watch Johnny Depp in a bad movie than some guy named Drew Fuller in a movie that allegedly appeals to their values.
The failure of The Ultimate Gift is simply a question of quality. The film isn't very good. The acting is subpar, the aesthetic is amateur and the underlying ideals are a cynical attempt at niche marketing. There really is nothing good about this movie and that is why audiences rejected it in droves when it was released in theaters and continue to reject it on DVD.
This will no doubt be the fate of most if not all films that follow the same path. Assuming that churchgoers are not savvy movie fans or that they are somehow entirely different from average moviegoers is a failed premise.
