{"id":4727,"date":"2014-01-17T16:46:29","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T21:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2014-01-17T16:47:29","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T21:47:29","slug":"ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html","title":{"rendered":"UP&#8217;s &#8220;Town That Came A-Courtin'&#8221; is a charmer + Song for faith-based &#8220;Alone Yet Not Alone&#8221; scores Oscar nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Sneak Peek: The Town That Came A-Courtin&#039;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NTM2zM6t_ug?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><strong><em>The Town That Came A-Courtin&#8217;<\/em> premieres this Sunday (1\/19) @ 7:00 PM ET<\/strong> <strong>on UP TV<br \/>\nMain Cast: Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft,<\/strong> <strong>Lucie Guest, Iris Quinn, Toby Hargrave<\/strong> and <strong>Valerie Harper<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Produced by: Odyssey Media<\/strong> (in association with <strong>The Cartel<\/strong>, <strong>Paulist Pictures<\/strong> and <strong>Five Smooth Stones Productions<\/strong>)<br \/>\n<strong>Directed by:<\/strong> <strong>David Winning<\/strong><br \/>\nScreenplay by: <strong>Sheryl J. Anderson<\/strong> (based on the novel by <strong>Ronda Rich<\/strong>)<br \/>\n<strong>Casting by:<\/strong> <strong>Bim Narine<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis<\/strong> <strong>(adapted from the UP press release): <\/strong>Abby Houston (Lauren Holly) is a smart beautiful, successful author and fiercely independent southern woman. We\u00a0 meet her, she is curiously being kept captive in a remote cabin by an obsessed fan named Walter (Toby Hargrave).<\/p>\n<p>Days earlier, Abby and her publicist (Lucie Guest) were visiting the lovely &#8212; and amazingly-friendly &#8212; town of Bliss, Mississippi on her most recent book tour where Charlotte (Valerie Harper), owner of the local Magnolia Blossom B&amp;B, and her well-meaning prayer chain were concocting big plans for the author &#8212; who they see as the perfect for their beloved Mayor Spencer Alexander (Cameron Bancroft). The mayor is also the widowed father of two children.<\/p>\n<p>After a rocky first meeting, Abby agrees to have dinner with Spencer who she finds to be both handsome and earnest. Eagerly encouraged by the entire town, they embark on a whirlwind public romance. But just as they are about to share a first kiss, Spencer is reminded of his late wife and abruptly pulls back. Hurt and sad, Abby is determined to leave Bliss behind but, instead, she&#8217;s kidnapped by an obsessed fan. That&#8217;s when the town, led by the mayor, mobilizes to find her.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong> This is, IMHO, UP&#8217;s best movie yet. Though its plot may resemble a gender-reversed version of <em><strong>Misery<\/strong><\/em> &#8212; director Rob Reiner&#8217;s 1990 thriller in which a male writer (<strong>James Caan<\/strong>) was kidnapped by a crazed female fan (<strong>Kathy Bates<\/strong>) &#8212; it&#8217;s actually nothing like that. The tone, in fact, is more reminiscent of <em><strong>The Andy Griffith Show<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Like that classic sitcom, it&#8217;s set in a small town. Bliss, Mississippi is a lot like Mayberry, North Carolina in that it&#8217;s populated by offbeat and endearing characters you can&#8217;t help but enjoy spending time with. The main difference is that that our focal point is the town&#8217;s mayor rather than its sheriff. And Bliss&#8217; widowed Mayor Alexander (Bancroft), it turns out, is a lot like Mayberry&#8217;s widowed Sheriff Taylor &#8212; except he has two kids (a boy and a girl) as opposed to just one.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more Abby Houston (Holly) makes for a very attractive <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Helen_Crump\">Helen Crump<\/a> and the chemistry between Holly and Bancroft is palpable. In fact, the casting of this film is so spot-on as to be worthy of note.\u00a0 All the colorful, quirky characters of Bliss are interesting just to look at. And Lucie Guest strikes just the note as Abby&#8217;s big city-bred publicist who finds herself amazed to discover a town where people care about their mayor &#8212; and each other &#8212; so much. This may be an idealized view of small town life (like Mayberry was) but it resonates. If it&#8217;s not exactly as life is, it&#8217;s a relatively believable version of what it could be if people were just a bit nicer to each other.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, it&#8217;s good to see that Valerie Harper who actually terrific in the role of Charlotte, the kind and encouraging of the town&#8217;s bed and breakfast.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Sneak Peek: The Town That Came A-Courtin&#039;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KR3fugp5NFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>The kidnapping plot which really kicks in toward the end has as much actual a sense of terror as those Mayberry episodes where would-be bank robbers would arrive only to be thwarted by Andy (with questionable assist from Barney).<\/p>\n<p>When the movie ended, I actually wouldn&#8217;t mind spending more time with lovable character. If you ask me, <em>A Town Called Bliss<\/em> would make a pretty good TV series. <strong>Highly Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Song of praise.<\/strong> Congratulations to <strong>Enthuse Entertainment.<\/strong> Its faith and family friendly period drama <b><i>Alone Yet Not Alone <\/i><\/b>&#8212; produced outside Hollywood&#8217;s mainstream &#8212; surprised some show business prognosticators by landing a <strong>2014 Oscar nomination for Best Original Song<\/strong>. The title song (written by <strong>Bruce Broughton<\/strong> with lyrics by <strong>Dennis Spiegel<\/strong>) is performed by <strong>Joni Eareckson<\/strong>. The film\u2019s original soundtrack is currently available to audiences digitally through <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/album\/alone-yet-not-alone-single\/id791859570\"><strong>iTunes<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Alone Yet Not Alone (Song) Performed by Joni Eareckson Tada\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BWVyVMbSzM4?start=264&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><i>Alone Yet Not Alone<\/i> tells the inspirational story of<strong> Barbara<\/strong> and <strong>Regina Leininger<\/strong> whose faith in<strong> God<\/strong> sustained them when they were by Delaware Indians during the French &amp; Indian war in 1755. (Read my review of the film <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/09\/review-faith-themed-romantic-historical-epic-alone-yet-not-alone-hits-theaters-this-weekend.html\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>In limited theatrical last September, <i id=\"yui_3_7_2_1_1389892995180_2463\">Alone Yet Not Alone<\/i> became the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend in terms of per screen average (combining theater ticket sales with <strong>Seatzy<\/strong> ticket sales), garnering $13,396 per screen and ranking <i>Alone Yet Not Alone<\/i> as one of the highest per-screen-average independently-released faith-based films to date.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The 86th annual Academy Awards<\/strong> will be broadcast by <strong>ABC<\/strong> on Sunday, March 2 from the <strong>Dolby Theatre<\/strong> in Hollywood.\u00a0<strong> Ellen DeGeneres<\/strong> will host.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><b>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Town That Came A-Courtin&#8217; premieres this Sunday (1\/19) @ 7:00 PM ET on UP TV Main Cast: Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft, Lucie Guest, Iris Quinn, Toby Hargrave and Valerie Harper Produced by: Odyssey Media (in association with The Cartel, Paulist Pictures and Five&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,13,24,25,31,1],"tags":[35,6237,1858,6241,6238,6226,6234,6239,6243,6244,6236,6233,6228,6240,6225,6227,6230,6232,6127,5651,6235,6242,6231,6229,6224,3393],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-christianity","category-family-matters","category-movies","category-music","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-2014-oscar-nomination-for-best-original-song","tag-abc","tag-barbara-and-regina-leininger","tag-bruce-broughton","tag-cameron-bancroft","tag-david-winning","tag-dennis-spiegel","tag-dolby-theatre","tag-ellen-degeneres","tag-enthuse-entertainment","tag-five-smooth-stones-productions","tag-iris-quinn","tag-joni-eareckson","tag-lauren-holly","tag-lucie-guest","tag-odyssey-media","tag-paulist-pictures","tag-ronda-rich","tag-seatzy","tag-sheryl-j-anderson","tag-the-86th-annual-academy-awards","tag-the-cartel","tag-toby-hargrave","tag-ups-town-that-came-a-courtin","tag-valerie-harper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UP&#039;s &quot;Town That Came A-Courtin&#039;&quot; is a charmer + Song for faith-based &quot;Alone Yet Not Alone&quot; scores Oscar nomination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UP&#039;s &quot;Town That Came A-Courtin&#039;&quot; is a charmer + Song for faith-based &quot;Alone Yet Not Alone&quot; scores Oscar nomination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Town That Came A-Courtin&#8217; premieres this Sunday (1\/19) @ 7:00 PM ET on UP TV Main Cast: Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft, Lucie Guest, Iris Quinn, Toby Hargrave and Valerie Harper Produced by: Odyssey Media (in association with The Cartel, Paulist Pictures and Five&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-17T21:46:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-17T21:47:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UP's \"Town That Came A-Courtin'\" is a charmer + Song for faith-based \"Alone Yet Not Alone\" scores Oscar nomination","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UP's \"Town That Came A-Courtin'\" is a charmer + Song for faith-based \"Alone Yet Not Alone\" scores Oscar nomination","og_description":"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Town That Came A-Courtin&#8217; premieres this Sunday (1\/19) @ 7:00 PM ET on UP TV Main Cast: Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft, Lucie Guest, Iris Quinn, Toby Hargrave and Valerie Harper Produced by: Odyssey Media (in association with The Cartel, Paulist Pictures and Five&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2014-01-17T21:46:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-17T21:47:29+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html","name":"UP's \"Town That Came A-Courtin'\" is a charmer + Song for faith-based \"Alone Yet Not Alone\" scores Oscar nomination","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-17T21:46:29+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-17T21:47:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/01\/ups-town-that-came-a-courtin-is-a-charmer-song-for-faith-based-alone-yet-not-alone-scores-oscar-nomination.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UP&#8217;s &#8220;Town That Came A-Courtin'&#8221; is a charmer + Song for faith-based &#8220;Alone Yet Not Alone&#8221; scores Oscar nomination"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4730,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions\/4730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}