{"id":6126,"date":"2015-04-12T08:13:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-12T12:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=6126"},"modified":"2015-04-13T11:14:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T15:14:38","slug":"tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html","title":{"rendered":"TV Movie Review: &#8220;The Music in Me&#8221; tonight on UP TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Music in Me<\/em> airs on UP TV tonight (4\/12) @ 7:00 PM (ET). <\/strong>The <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7046\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7041\">musical drama <\/span><\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7046\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7041\">stars singer\/songwriter\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7040\"><span class=\"yiv7539349962bodytext21\">Debbie Gibson (who wrote and performs the film&#8217;s original song <em>Promises<\/em>) and <em>E.R.<\/em>&#8216;s <\/span>Gloria Reuben. Others in the cast include\u00a0<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7054\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7055\">Antonio Cupo (<i>American Mary<\/i>, <em>Bomb Girls<\/em>), Amy Forsyth (<em>Defiance, Reign<\/em>), Cedric Smith (<em>Copper, Avonlea<\/em>), Marcia Bennett (<i>Serendipity<\/i>, <em>Happy Town<\/em>), Kim Roberts (<em>The Strain, Lucky 7<\/em>) and Mike Lobel (<em>Degrassi: The Next Generation, Really Me<\/em>). <\/span>John Bradshaw<\/span> (<i>Catch a Christmas Star<\/i>, <i>Come Dance with Me<\/i>) directs. Bryar Freed (<em>Love Finds You in Sugar Creek<\/em>) wrote the script. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Music In Me (Starring Debbie Gibson)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P6tHwESBFPA?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><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7539349962MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7046\"><strong>Synopsis (from the UP press release):\u00a0<\/strong><em><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7057\">Having traded in her dreams of becoming a professional singer to care for her aging parents and their neighborhood hardware store, Jessica (Debbie Gibson) is asked to step in as choir director for a failing church as they prepare for their the big centennial celebration.\u00a0 When she arrives, Jessica is shocked to discover that the earnest choir can&#8217;t sing and that the wary Church Deaconess (Gloria Reuben) is betting on her to fail.\u00a0 As she dives into rehearsals, Jessica builds a friendship with church handyman Ben (Antonio Cupo) and is challenged by choir member and teen runaway Alice (Amy Forsyth).\u00a0 Through their friendship and her work with the choir, she rekindles her love of music and finally finishes the song she&#8217;s been struggling with for many years \u2013 ultimately finding love and a start to the music career she&#8217;s always dreamed of pursuing.<\/span> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7539349962MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7046\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1428797643394_7040\"><\/span><\/span><strong>Review: <\/strong>Though the overall premise is promising, unfortunately there are too many false and off-key notes here to be considered one of UP&#8217;s better original movie offerings. Debbie Gibson as the choir director and Gloria Reuben as the strict church deaconess are both very good in their lead roles and they play off each other very well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7539349962MsoNormal\">But I believe the film would liked to have seen more focus on the quirky choir members and less on the budding relationship with the bland church handyman (Antonio Cupo) whose super-supportiveness somehow comes across as more smarmy than sincere (which could be funny if he wasn&#8217;t actually presented as sincere).<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7539349962MsoNormal\">Beyond those flat-noted scenes, I think the whole thing would have worked better if the comic potential of getting the motley crew choir ready for their big performance was played up a bit more. That key of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/F_Troop\"><em>F Troop<\/em><\/a> potential is hinted at a bit &#8212; particularly with one member who talks and sings in extremely hushed tones but who sounds pretty good through a megaphone &#8212; but is never fully realized. The only choir member we learn much at all about is Alice (Amy Forsyth), good as a teenager who (slight spoiler alert) turns out to be homeless.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7539349962MsoNormal\">Despite its flaws, like many UP films, <em>The Music in Me<\/em> actually lays the groundwork for what could be a pretty good series &#8212; if the network and those involved decide to move in that direction. There&#8217;s lots of room for the characters to grow and ample opportunity for uplifting music mixed with character-driven comedy and drama. I&#8217;d just suggest tilting things a little bit more toward the comedy.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Music in Me airs on UP TV tonight (4\/12) @ 7:00 PM (ET). The musical drama stars singer\/songwriter\u00a0Debbie Gibson (who wrote and performs the film&#8217;s original song Promises) and E.R.&#8216;s Gloria Reuben. Others in the cast include\u00a0Antonio Cupo (American Mary, Bomb Girls), Amy&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,25,31,1],"tags":[35,8280,8278,8282,8279,8277,8281,8292,8288,8286,8284,8291,8285,4700,8283,8289,8290,4757,8287,5130],"class_list":["post-6126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-movies","category-music","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-amy-forsyth-defiance","tag-antonio-cupo-american-mary","tag-avonlea","tag-bomb-girls","tag-bryar-freed-love-finds-you-in-sugar-creek","tag-cedric-smith-copper","tag-come-dance-with-me","tag-debbie-gibson","tag-e-r-s-gloria-reuben","tag-happy-town","tag-john-bradshaw-catch-a-christmas-star","tag-kim-roberts-the-strain","tag-lucky-7","tag-marcia-bennett-serendipity","tag-mike-lobel-degrassi-the-next-generation","tag-really-me","tag-reign","tag-the-music-in-me","tag-up-tv"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TV Movie Review: &quot;The Music in Me&quot; tonight on UP TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TV Movie Review: &quot;The Music in Me&quot; tonight on UP TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Music in Me airs on UP TV tonight (4\/12) @ 7:00 PM (ET). The musical drama stars singer\/songwriter\u00a0Debbie Gibson (who wrote and performs the film&#8217;s original song Promises) and E.R.&#8216;s Gloria Reuben. Others in the cast include\u00a0Antonio Cupo (American Mary, Bomb Girls), Amy&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-12T12:13:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-13T15:14:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Others in the cast include\u00a0Antonio Cupo (American Mary, Bomb Girls), Amy&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2015-04-12T12:13:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-13T15:14:38+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\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html","name":"TV Movie Review: \"The Music in Me\" tonight on UP TV","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-12T12:13:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-13T15:14:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/04\/tv-movie-review-the-music-in-me-tonight-on-up-tv.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TV Movie Review: &#8220;The Music in Me&#8221; tonight on UP TV"}]},{"@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\/6126","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=6126"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6132,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions\/6132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}