Bob Garver

Christian music biopic “I Can Only Imagine” had a surprising performance at the domestic box office back in 2018. The film made $83 million despite never finishing above the #3 position on any given weekend. While it never escaped the shadow of “Black Panther,” which beat it every weekend, it did manage to ultimately outdo the Alicia Vikander “Tomb Raider” and badly-received kaiju sequel “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” both of which had better weekends in their respective debuts in the film’s first two weeks. The film did well because it had stamina and passionate support. Now sequel “I Can Only Imagine 2” has also debuted in the #3 position, behind the second weekends of both “Wuthering Heights” and “GOAT.” Will it have the stamina and support to pull off a similarly impressive showing? Probably not, but only time will tell.

I did not see the first film, but I understand that it ended with songwriter Bart Millard (J. Michael Finley) penning one of the biggest Christian crossover hits of all time following the death of his abusive, yet redemption-seeking father (Dennis Quaid). Millard starts this film by assuring us that his story did not end with his achieving financial success in the early 2000’s. Life went on, and as life does, and it contained hardship. In the wake of the song’s success, Bart and his wife Shannon (Sophie Skelton, taking over the role from Madeline Carroll) have a scare when their son Sam suffers a diabetes-related seizure. He’ll have to spend the rest of his life receiving regular insulin injections, which scare him tremendously.

Image

Ten years later, in the early 2010’s, Sam (Sammy Dell) is a sullen teenager, while Bart and Shannon, having had four more children, aren’t as financially stable as they once were. Brick (Trace Adkins), manager of Bart’s band MercyMe, informs them that their upcoming tour is in jeopardy due to the headliner pulling out. The tour can continue with MercyMe as headliners, but they’ll need a new opening act. With curiously no time given to the decision-making process, the film introduces Tim Timmons (Milo Ventimiglia), a struggling musician with a loving wife (Arielle Kebbel), an obsession with hymn “It Is Well With My Soul,” and a suspicious gratitude for every day that suggests he has been told his days are numbered.

Bart, Tim, and the rest of MercyMe go on tour, with Sam tagging along to spend some quality time with his dad. Though Tim and Sam get along well, with the professional even inviting the aspiring musician to perform with him, the relationship between Bart and Sam is fraught with tension. Bart needs Sam to take his insulin shots on schedule, and Sam wants to avoid them at all costs. Bart wonders if he’s being a monster by “hurting” Sam, the way his father was a monster by hurting him. The film treats this insecurity like a legitimate question, but… the answer is no. Flat no. Bart’s father’s beatings didn’t take the form of delivering life-saving insulin. It’s not the same thing. Next dilemma, please.

There are plenty of dilemmas throughout “I Can Only Imagine 2.” Both Sam and Tim struggle with health problems, Bart is under a lot of pressure to write another hit after ten years, his marriage has seen better days, the bus breaks down at one point, etc. But, this being the “uplifting” movie that it is, you can probably guess that faith will see these characters through their various crises. Faith is certainly not a guarantee that these characters (or anyone else) will not experience loss or despair, but genre expectations are such that things aren’t likely to end on a down note.

Grade: C

“I Can Only Imagine 2” is rated PG for thematic material and some language. Its running time is 110 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.