Movie Review: I’ll Believe You

I’ll Believe You

PG for mild language.

Running Time: 1 hour 22 minutes

Dale Sweeney is a radio host of a little-listened-to-late-night talk show. His show is called I’ll Believe You and he does just that. He believes pretty much anything anyone tells him. Of course his only listeners, and only callers, are those who want to talk about UFO sightings.

Then, when he’s on the verge of cancellation, Sweeney receives a phone call from someone who’s speaking an unknown language. The next morning, not only does he get into trouble from the station manager for allowing the caller to go on for on for 5 minutes, but the FBI shows up too! Of course, in Dale’s mind anyway, this can only mean one thing…

The caller must be an extraterrestrial lost in his small town!

A Big Screen Should-A-Been

I’ll Believe You made a limited theatrical release in November 2007. At it’s widest release, it only made it on to 29 screens with a two week run. But, that’s not to say this is a bad film. As a matter of fact, this is really a big screen wanna-be, that should-have-been released to a wider viewing audience. While it’s not one of those huge blockbuster type movies, I’ll Believe You is certainly better than some movies Hollywood force feeds us on the big screen.

A lack of screen coverage certainly has nothing to do with an unknown cast. If anything, I’ll Believe You has a great cast! Once again, that makes this limited release movie somewhat of an oddity. Sometimes movies are tossed into the limited release pile because no one knows the actors involved. But, such is not the case here. Those involved in this flick include; David Alan Basche who starred opposite Debra Messing in the TV series The Starter Wife; Patrick Warburton of Rules of Engagement, Seinfeld and Bee Movie fame; Ed Helms who also stars in the surprise Warner Brothers summer hit The Hangover.

But, the big names don’t end there!

Emmy winning writer and nightly comic foil for 11 years on Late Night with David Letterman Chris Elliott is also in I’ll Believe You. Other big names include; Fred Willard who was in the recent Pixar instant hit Wall-E and Thomas Gibson from the comedy series Dharma and Greg and currently  stars as Agent Aaron Hotchner on Criminal Minds.

If it’s big names you’re looking for in a movie, I’ll Believe You has lots to offer. Once again, that makes the limited release of this movie all the more odd.

Funny & Unpredictable

While it has a little bit of a slow start, I’ll Believe You is funny and unpredictable.

The genius behind the scriptwriting is in the fact that it’s unpredictable. But, I want to quickly point out this is not an unpredictable in a bad way. Sometimes movie plot lines jump all over the place and become very hard to follow. Such is not the case with I’ll Believe You. It’s actually quite the opposite. Just when you think you have the storyline figured out, something happens which makes you step back and say…

“Oh, I didn’t see that one coming.”

As a movie critic, when a movie has me saying that, this is a good thing! By now we’ve pretty much seen every twist and turn possible in a movie plot. But, when something comes along that catches us by surprise, in an unpredictable way, it moves the movie up on our list of likes.

The scriptwriting is creative in the way it drops little clues along the way as to what’s really going on. We also applaud the writers for making sure loose ends are tied up by the end of the movie. While the flick clocks in at a rather quick hour and 20 minutes, attention is given to the little details. In my opinion there’s nothing worse than leaving a movie saying “What in the world was that part in there for?” However with I’ll Believe You, any loose ends are nicely connected by the time the credits roll. This tactic actually gives the movie not only a comedy feeling, but also a little bit of a who-dun-it sense too.

As for rating, we are calling it family-friendly, with one little reservation.

The synopsis describes I’ll Believe You as a “whimsical family comedy”. While that is a very true statement, we wonder why the scriptwriters felt the need to fill Fred Willard’s mouth with a series of curse words the first time he appears on the screen.

This is somewhat dis-heartening for a couple reasons.

First off, if the filmmakers were really going after the family-friendly crowd, the series of expletives creates concern for parents. The argument may be “they’ve heard it all before”. But, that does not excuse the language. Most parents do not want their kids to hear bad language. Secondly, as someone who’s worked in radio for a number of years, while there are some radio station managers who do speak like that, most do not. So, such language is simply out of character.

Aside from the brief language issue, the overall presentation and feel of I Believe You is family-friendly. Many times movies like this fall into the category of childish family-friendly, but such is not the case here. Both my wife and I, along with our 17 year old son, laughed and enjoyed this independent movie.

More I’ll Believe You Information Here!

Enjoy the show!
Dr. Rus