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 Alex Robinson is an ambitious young man with a problem: although he's a devout Christian, he can't quite seem to get up the nerve to share his faith with others. There always seems to be some reason why it doesn't work out: he makes up excuses why it won't work, he can't find a common point of interest with the person, the person gets distracted, someone interrupts the conversation, or a number of other reasons. Alex isn't looking to shove his beliefs on someone, but rather wants to just talk about them in discussion. But no matter how hard he tries, he just can't seem to get up the nerve to share his faith.
In the course of the film, Alex struggles to overcome his nervousness in his encounters with different people throughout the day: a taxi driver, his boss, the waitress at the local diner, and a deliveryman. Each time, Alex makes up excuses and finds reasons why "now's not the right time" to bring up the topic of personal beliefs. By the end of the day, he's frustrated and disappointed at his inability to even attempt such a conversation. At a coffeeshop, he decides to make one last try, and ends up very surprised at the result.
Content
I must say that I was rather impressed with the film's presentation of the material. I was initially skeptical about a film that centers on a Christian wanting to share his faith with others; knowing that far too many people have had bad experiences with such encounters, I was concerned that the character would be aggressive, intolerant, painfully ignorant, or just plain annoying. However, he was none of those things. Director Caleb Vetter did an excellent job of portraying him as a sincere yet nervous young man who wants to share something that is important to him, but isn't exactly sure how to do it. Jeshua Carlisle's performance as Alex Robinson was very good as well. The story is paced well, and is easy to follow. The ending is a very nice ironic touch, showing that "opportunities" can pop up in unexpected places from unexpected people. It also suggests that perhaps Alex has been over-analyzing his "opportunities", and that the process of sharing his faith is actually not as complicated as he makes it out to be.
The writing was very good as well. My favorite scene was in a coffeeshop ("Starcups").
Following a customer who's just placed a very complicated order, Alex asks for a cup of coffee. The cashier is very confused by this.
"That's all you want, just a cup of coffee?"
Pause.
"I guess we can do that."
Goes to ring up transaction, but isn't sure what to do. Longer pause.
"Let me go get a manager."
The exchange is brief, but very funny. Having experienced similar scenarios (sans the manager call), I thought it was a nice touch to the film.
The one thing I would have liked to see developed better is Alex's relationship with his female co-worker. She is prominently shown in several shots (Alex collides with her outside the boss' door, the camera follows her in a long tracking shot through the office, etc.). Because the camera makes a point of showing her, we assume that she is important somehow. I got the impression that the filmmaker was suggesting that the whole time Alex is looking for an "opportunity" to share his faith with someone, that "someone" (his co-worker) is right there under his nose. If that was the case, it would be nice to show his obliviousness (or dismissal) of that opportunity. This could be achieved by the addition of a simple voiceover; maybe something like, "Oh, there's Cheryl. I've thought about witnessing to her. But if she blew me off or I made her angry, I'd still have to work with her, and that could be really awkward. I think I'll talk to her after I've gotten more experience with sharing my faith."
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