A New Dreamer
Whilst Brady's (Andrew Cheney) father had sons from his first marriage it was a marriage purely of duty and it was his mum who his father married out of love, but she sadly died when giving birth to his younger brother. Trouble is that his older brothers are jealous of Brady as they feel their father favours him, even buying him a new truck, whilst Brady's gift of visions and dreams causes even more unrest. When events between Brady and his brothers come to a head he is forced to leave his dad's ranch and start a new in Dallas. Having worked hard in a new job and found love Brady finds himself charged with a crime he didn't commit and put inside.
It has been a long time since I went so Sunday School and was taught the story of Joseph and his dreams from Genesis. In fact despite it being a familiar story I had to look at it again as I didn't remember how it played out after the jealous brothers sold Joseph and made out to their father that he was dead. I mention all this because whilst I didn't know it to start with "Seasons of Gray" is a modern take on the story of Joseph from Genesis.
Here is the good news; for those who don't simply dismiss movies which come under the label of Christian Cinema "Seasons of Gray" works. The writers have done a nice job of keeping the familiar aspects of the original storyline but updating them so instead of a fancy coat Brady gets a new jeep and whilst in the original he worked as a slave in this version he gets a job in the mailroom before ending up a prisoner. And there are a lot of these moments of creative re-imagining which makes the story work incredibly well as a modern drama rather than just a bible story.
But alongside the good news I do have to pick out the bad. As such I have to say that whilst some of the camera work in "Seasons of Gray" is good some of it is weak. At the same time whilst Andrew Cheney delivers a solid performance as Brady others around him had that nervousness of actors not feeling the story and just waiting for their queues to say their lines. It is a shame because with decent acting "Seasons of Gray" could have ended up something really special.
What this all boils down to is that "Seasons of Gray" is an entertaining update on the story of Joseph from Genesis which keeps the strong biblical message at its heart. But as is too often the case it is the production and the calibre of the acting which lets the movie down.
