TO half between biopic, religious film and college movie, What do you leave me of you – on first tv tonight at 21.25 on Rai 1 – it is a film inspired by true story of singer-songwriter Jeremy Campleading representative of the American contemporary Christian music. Genre not very well known to us.
Taken from autobiographical novel I Still Believetitle of one of Camp’s most famous songs, What do you leave me of you rebuilds the youth of the future star. Unfortunately marked by a terrible mourning which, despite the gravity, hasn’t affected either his love for music or the confidence of a chance to start over.
What do you leave me of you: the plot of the movie
In September 1999, Jeremy Camp (KJ Apa, 20 years old) – folk music enthusiast – decides to leave his family to go to Calvary Chapel Bible College. Where he meets Jean-Luc, leader of a Christian music band, e Melissa, beautiful student he falls in love with. The two help Jeremy crown the dream of becoming a singer, but a nasty surprise is around the corner: the girl is diagnosed with liver cancer at an advanced stage. Unperturbed, Jeremy still decides to marry her.
And while his career takes offMelissa’s conditions begin to to shake the unassailable faith who feel for religion.
Plus the worse she gets, the more his career suffers setbacks. Up to a tragic ending that (spolier) leaves to man the hope of a second life.
Christian faith and molasses
Love, teenagers and illness is a formula that in Hollywood always finds fertile ground. Just think of Love Storyprogenitor of the “lacrima movie” which after fifty years is still one of the most viewed titles, even among the very young.
More recently, they have seen each other One meter from you – whose characters are affected by cystic fibrosis – e We are everythingwhich tells the impossible story between Maddy and Olly: she forced to live locked in the house due to a rare diseasehe eager to love her despite everything.
A scene from “We are everything”.
What do you leave me of youUnfortunately, does not differ much from the plot of the sick-lit movie while not giving up a few glimpses of “Christian film”, another genre quite in vogue in America and which, nomen omen, prefers to deal with religious issues.
The directors of the filmAndre and John Erwin, and the protagonist KJ Apa (already seen in Riverdale) they are also well-known figures for their faith in the Christian religion. And this does nothing but embrace in toto an ideology made up of tears, moral torture and unconditional faith as the only response to suffering.
Also the plot, overused and all too predictablehe adds honey al message of rebirth and freedom that one would like to offer, weighing it down. The film thus becomes, as well as annoyingly self-congratulatory, a huge ideological commercial that commodifies without too many scruples instead of ennobling what is good and honest about a religious faith.
The story of Jeremy Camp after Melissa’s disappearance
When the young wife of the “christian music” star goes missing in 2001, Jeremy is only 23 years old. For the singer, the loss of his beloved is an almost fatal blowto the point that for almost two years he leaves the music. As in the best fairy tales, rebirth occurs through an encounter: the one with singer Adrienne Lieschingin 2003, whom he marries after six months.
A marriage that has lasted for almost twenty years, three children: Isabella, Arianne and little Egan. But despite the serenity achieved, in his concerts Jeremy continues to remember Melissa, that unfortunate girl who was only 21 when he lost his life.
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