In “Yellow Days,” Sinatra sang about “when the
sunlight had a special kind of brightness.” This is a different sort of Yellow
Day, but it still involves bounteous sunshine and a pair of separated lovers. Lovers
might be too strong a word, but the man and the woman in question would make a
perfect pair if they could only find each other again in Carl Lauten & G.P.
Galle Jr.’s Yellow Day (trailer here), which opens this
Christmas Day in select markets.
Half the film takes place in a Catholic
Church, yet the balance of Yellow Day
feels very much like an Evangelical film. “The Good Man” has come to Camp Grace
hoping to find Monica. They had found themselves locked inside St. Joseph’s
Chapel, It Happened One Night style.
Of course, nothing really happened that night, but a connection was forged.
Nevertheless, Monica abruptly disappeared the following morning. Only knowing
that she is a regular counselor at Camp Grace’s annual Yellow Day celebration,
the Young Good Man has come in search of her.
Unfortunately, Monica is nowhere to be found
this Yellow Day. However, the Good Man has faith—and a spirit guide in a little
girl who could be the spitting image of Monica at age ten. She knows all about
Yellow Day, but she is still susceptible to ominous bouts of dread. When she
appears to him, the film usually shifts gears into symbolic animated sequences,
drawing heavily on chivalric Christian imagery.
By the standards of Evangelical cinema, Yellow Day is remarkably professional.
The co-leads, Drew Seeley and Lindsey Shaw are not just competent, they are winningly
charismatic. They develop real (but chaste) chemistry together. Ashley
Boettcher is similarly polished and likeable as the mysterious little girl. St.
Joseph’s Chapel is also a wonderfully warm and cinematic setting for their
faith-based courtship. However, the supposedly expansive Camp Grace looks
comparatively small on-screen.
Through the animated segments (passably but
unremarkably crafted), producer-screenwriter Galle adds an allegorical level to
the film that is admirably ambitious, but it often obscures more than it
illuminates. However, the Catholic Galle falls into the same trap that ensnares
most Evangelical filmmakers. He just cannot let much time elapse without “a
word from our sponsor.” Yes, the film has a tendency to get a tad preachy,
especially when on the grounds of Camp Grace. He is entitled to convey his
message and it happens to be a rather worthy one, but it would be more
effective he slipped it in more subtly and selectively.