Movie Review: A Week Away

Attempting to steal the mantel once held by the films of the “High School Musical” franchise, the new Christian-rock themed A Week Away, delivers a rewarding enough tale of a young man finding himself and partners it with somewhat catchy musical numbers that it makes the film’s running time not seem as though the end of the film is also seven days away.

The film follows troubled teen troubadour Will Hawkins (Kevin Quinn) after he is given the choice between attending Christian summer camp or being sent to juvenile detention after a run-in with the law. Of course, Will chooses camp and joins counselor Kristen (Sherri Shepherd), her son George (Jahbril Cook), and the camp’s director (David Koechner) as the fish-out-of-water character that just might find the redemption and family he has been searching for.

While some of the songs stray a little too much at times to the religiosity of the proceedings, there is a heartfelt earnestness at work here that makes the proceeding a bit more palatable than they probably deserve to me. Even the inevitable love story between bad-boy Will and good-girl Avery (Bailee Madison) manages to come across as endearing and uplifting. Despite the rather formulaic story and predictable outcome, there is enough enthusiastic participation from all those involved that you may simply be swept up in it before realizing what you are enjoying is pure cheese.

Kevin Quinn in “A Week Away.”

Although it will not give any of history’s great love stories any enduring competition, A Week Away manages to offer an occasionally feel-good musical romance (albeit one with far too many religious overtures).

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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