The Forge review (2024)

The Forge isn’t a sharp as its filmmakers intend with a few dull points that weigh down its uplifting and encouraging message.

This marks the latest project from Alex and Stephen Kendrick aka The Kendrick Brothers. The evangelical brothers have been prolific in getting their smaller budget films out to a nationwide audience typically turning in a hefty profit to enhance their efforts to spread the Good News.

Football, family, marriages have been the focal point of previous efforts including Facing the Giants, Overcomer, War Room and Fireproof. For The Forge, the topic is mentorship.

Isaiah (Aspen Kennedy) is fine slacking at home playing marathon video game sessions with his online buddies or playing basketball with his friends.

His mother, Cynthia (Priscilla C. Shirer, Overcomer), is tired of waiting for her 19-year-old to grow up and accept some responsibility. This probably would be easier if she required him to do so before he turned 19…

Cynthia gathers her fellow prayer warriors at her salon, including her identical twin sister, which felt more like an unnecessary camera trick gimmick as opposed to just casting another actress to be Shirer’s sister. Director/co-writer Alex and co-writer Stephen probably don’t spend much time in the salon, but this dialogue was rough sounding like a first draft of a lengthy exposition scene.

Better late than never, Cynthia demands Isaiah find a job or a new place to stay. After a disastrous encounter with a coffee shop owner after a poor attempt at flirting with his daughter, Isaiah stumbles onto a sports equipment company. The president/owner Joshua Moore (Cameron Arnett) takes a surprising interest in Isaiah and offers him a position so long as he agrees to early morning one on one mentoring sessions.

Isaiah has some early hiccups — staying up too late and missing his alarm clock — but he quickly gets the hang of the job and being a reliable employee. Seeing his chats are having the desired impact, Joshua invites Isaiah to join his small group of Christian men who gather to encourage and develop one another —The Forge.

These segments are the best part of The Forge. Isaiah finds an inviting community of men and their younger mentees who uplift him in becoming a better man. It did seem like a missed opportunity not to have more scenes focusing on Isaiah and the other mentees bonding and overcoming different life struggles while being mentored. Kennedy is a solid lead making Isaiah’s transformation from slacker gamer who’s angry that his father left him to a young man with a promising future believable. Arnett is warm and genial as the caring, patient mentor.

Karen Abercrombie returns as Miss Clara Williams, an elderly woman who dishes out spiritual advice and prayer. Her inclusion is fine although her screen time would have been better served with deeper subplots for Isaiah.

The Kendrick Brothers are true believers, but they don’t seem to buy in to creative authentic challenges and struggles for the characters.

From the point Isaiah starts being mentored, he doesn’t face any discernible obstacles or setbacks keeping him from his new path save a random reunion with his father that essentially puts him in a bad mood for an evening.

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Isaiah has no legitimate or completely “movie-forced” problems that make him reconsider this new path. He never lashes out at Joshua or in a fit of anger accuses him of trying to be a father again through him.

The Kendricks write Isaiah’s transformation as so all-encompassing that he’s no longer relatable to a 19- or 20-something who might be watching The Forge in a similar state as Isaiah when it started. He becomes a flawless, perfect character who always does the right thing.

Maybe the Kendricks could have also had the 19- and later 20-year-old Isaiah not live the life of a monk and work in a relationship? Perhaps with the kind girl at the coffee shop?
It also doesn’t help that there’s no peer pressure from his friends encouraging him to goof off with them or worse. To keep The Forge a family film, the Kendricks can’t show these late teenagers doing anything more scandalous than playing basketball. The hooligans!

At two hours the film starts to bear its weight especially when some sermonettes and motivational speeches sound like they’re echoing previous points. The final act focuses on an illogical request from one of Joshua’s business partners. It pays off Joshua’s subplot but doesn’t do much for Isaiah. Besides, the setup has already established Isaiah is incapable of having a setback or disappointment so there’s no suspense at all.

While The Forge speaks to the power of mentorship, that doesn’t speak or account for a real world. The Kendrick Brothers take a promising faith-based story and turn it into a fairy tale with a neat and tidy happy ending complete with a rallying call for more to answer the call to be mentors. As well-meaning the message, the Kendricks don’t offer enough for either those fully invested in the church/religion or those who have no use for it.

Rating: 6 out of 10

You can check out The Forge now on Amazon Prime.

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Photo Credit: Affirm Films