Courage (2009)

Simply Perfect

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Ugh. I probably should not watch any Lifetime movies where police are shown, since they invariably are shown to be incompetent.The premise here is that Robert (Priestly) and Teresa (Roth) along with daughter/step-daughter Christy go on a boating trip. Robert has written a book called How to Date a Brainy Woman. Despite being on a narrow river, a storm hits and they are in the middle of the ocean! Teresa is the namesake "brainy woman" who can do anything from maintain an SUV to CPR to starting a fire using a cell phone battery. Unfortunately, she can't figure out to use the marine radio on their basically intact boat that is 50 feet away from them, or to remain with the boat for rescue. The requisite females in jeopardy scene takes place about 53 minutes in, and it's not a psycho- it is a bear! Well they are on Bear Island after all. Instead, they place Robert, who has a damaged leg, onto a litter and decide to pull him... somewhere else through the woods.Meanwhile, Teresa's mom, played by an actress too young to be her mom (13 year age gap), tries to report the family missing after they have not been seen for a day and a half. She goes and talks to the "Chief", who is wearing a uniform that says Sheriff's Department- here's a clue for Canadian script writers- in the US, the head of a Sheriff's Department is the Sheriff, not the Chief. The Chief blows her off, and says she needs to wait longer. The Chief is an imbecile. Apparently he has never been sued for negligence. My review title is one of the dumber lines in the movie, spoken by deputy Blondie, who is actually the smartest officer in the movie. It illustrates why no search delay would take place. Mom gets the good news that Teresa is pregnant! We learn the bear is being tracked by Deputy Dumb-Ass and a tracker dude, who tells deputy D-A to fire off a couple of rounds into the air. Why? Things come to a head with about 15 minutes left. Teresa is again in jeopardy from the bear after she has another less than brainy idea to go off for help on her own. Deputy D-A and the tracker see the bear, and feedback from the radio scares it away. The Coast Guard shows up at the crash site, and Christy takes a flaming branch (at least until she gets to a creek) to go back where they started. She and Robert are rescued by the Coast Guard. Teresa hits the trifecta for females in jeopardy with only 7 minutes left. Deputy D-A and the tracker lost the bear, but she found it. Then they find her and the bear, but tracker says not to fire, you might hit her- even though she was not in the line of fire. Just when I thought I was out of goofs, the tracker has the bear attack him and Deputy D-A with rifle in hand does NOTHING. He could have literally held the muzzle of the rifle to the head of the bear and killed it. Apparently the bear prefers blondes, and goes after Teresa. He finally ganks the bear after it again threatens Teresa. I think she has the record for females in jeopardy for a Lifetime movie. Maybe Deputy D-A and the "Chief" can find new jobs after the lawsuit.At the end we see Robert's book was a success, and presumably months later Teresa appears to be very pregnant- a big belly and big boobs- although it is likely a combination of a prosthetic belly, a push-up bra, and high heels- she is now several inches taller than Robert (Roth and Priestly are about the same height). A trivia point here is that Roth in fact gave birth to her first child in March 2010, so she was likely pregnant during filming.Robert's next book should be titled How to Date an Attractive 40-Something Canadian Actress, as it would be a more accurate title than the one here.The movie is a succession of more plot holes than the LMN usual. 3/10 on the regular movie scale (higher=better), 8/10 on the Lifetime movie scale (higher=dumber). It was a 7/10 until the last 6 minutes thanks to Deputy D-A not shooting the bear.

Watched this last night on GMC. Other than Theresa praying to God to keep them safe from the storm, I don't know how a previous reviewer could call this a "religious themed movie". It is a nice, little family movie to watch on a Saturday night if nothing else is on the TV.Jason Priestly had very little to do in this movie so if you tuned in to watch him, you will be disappointed.In typical fashion, the family heads out on their boat to go to Bear Island, telling nobody where they were going and obviously not checking the weather reports. Naturally a storm comes up crashing their boat onto the rocks on Bear Island. Robert is injured so spends much of his time in this movie laying on his back. The mother is brave but not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Even after they know there is a bear on the island (hence the name Bear Island I guess) they still go traipsing in the woods alone with numerous bear encounters. They should have stayed with the boat, but like most people set out to find help themselves.The usual schmaltzy type of movie you would find on GMC or The Hallmark Channel. I survived it but wouldn't watch it again. But if you are into family oriented movies this one is safe to watch with the children, unless they are very young as some of the bear scenes might be a little frightening to young kids.BTW there is no nudity or even partial nudity. Not sure where that came from.

"Dear God, please protect us from this storm." After receiving the news that his new book is not selling and the store he works at is going to close because of it Robert (Priestley) decides the best way to clear his head is to get on his boat with his family and get away for the weekend. While on the way to the island getaway a storm hits and the family is stuck on an island, but they are not alone. Being that this is a movie from the "Faith & Family" series, I was expecting some cheesiness from this. I was not disappointed. This is a hard movie to review. There really is no substance to this movie. The acting is pretty bad, and the movie seems to get more and more absurd. That being said, it is a religious themed movie and all of that stuff is to be expected so it can't be docked because of it. It you have seen any of the other "Faith & Family" movies you will know what to expect from this one. If you are looking for a feel good, uplifting movie this is a good one to pick, but again there is not much to this one. Overall, not good, but not bad either. A decent one time watch. I give it a C.Would I watch again? - No I wouldn't *Also try - Letters To God & Expecting A Miracle

The movie was okay. I just finished watching it on the movie network. Jason Priestly (Robert) is an important figure in the movie, and plays a father role who just finished writing a novel. Priestly doesn't really do much acting in this role, it is mainly done by his wife who is the one who really shows the courage in this movie. His wife played by Andrea Roth(Teresa), also the stepmother of his daughter. His daughter is played by Genenvieve Buchner (Megan). It starts off pretty well with an opening scene of future events to come and how they get caught in a big storm on their family boat. The movie portrays how a modern family overcomes their differences and work together to survive difficult situations. The acting overall isn't really that great but not bad for a made for t.v. movie. It does keep you interested as to what is going to happen next. I would say it's movie that you can watch with the family, especially if you have a teenager's who give you a hard time. They may learn to appreciate you more if you were in this situation as this family was. Also, a good one for those struggling step mothers who have a hard time bonding with their step children.On a side note they state on the movie network that their is some nudity in it. Well let me just let you know, that no nudity occurred.