Is the faith-based biopic “I Can” an inspirational sports film? Inspiration porn? Both, or neither?
“Their biggest mistake was their greatest blessing” reads the tagline for the recent Christian film “I Can.”
I’m sure the marketing team meant well, but honestly, that just reads weird to me.
Based on true events of one-armed softball player Katelyn Pavey from Lanesville, Indiana, “I Can” revolves around her birth after an extramarital affair between Eric (Jeff Armstrong) and Selena (Amanda Verkamp). As Katelyn (Danner Brown) grows up, she discovers a gift with softball that leads to her being a star player on her high school’s team, coached by her father. During one of their games, Katelyn suffers a leg injury that leaves her unable to play for the season. She eventually makes a full recovery and garners interest from many college recruiters, but that’s not the full story, much less the end of it.
Throughout the story, Eric believes Katelyn’s limb difference is a result of God’s punishment for the affair with Selena in his younger years. This serves as a point of tension between Eric and the rest of his family, and a point of uncomfortable familiarity with viewers for whom disability hits close to home.
The concept of disability due to sin is not uncommon among Christian audiences. Similarly, films about disability focusing solely on its impact on loved ones — rather than the disabled individual — are no stranger to the silver screen either. What’s interesting about “I Can” is how it subtly and meticulously flips these on their heads.
Like I said, “I Can” has some strange marketing that might have audiences expecting a different movie than what this one actually is. Its main promotional poster had Katelyn front and center, with her softball uniform and game face on, insinuating Katelyn’s character development is the focus of the plot. While Brown struggled during the more intense scenes and her performance of Katelyn was rather dry, Katelyn’s overall depiction in the film was that of an ordinary high school girl. The reason Katelyn isn’t shown to have much of a character arch is because the story is more about Erics’ arch instead — that his daughter’s arm is not about himself.
Director Tyler Sansom and writer Evan Mitchum managed to make a faith-based movie that evades Christian film genres and cliches. While audiences walking into theatres may be expecting a disability inspiration porn sports biopic, they’ll walk out not feeling the same way.
If you live in the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana tristate area and want to see for yourself, you can watch “I Can” at the following theatres:
Movies 10-Nelsonville: Nelsonville, OH
KYOVA 10 Theatre: Ashland, KY
Tenth Frame Cinemas: Mount Sterling, KY
Corydon Cinemas: Corydon, IN
Tell City Twin: Tell City, IN
Jasper 8: Jasper, IN