‘A Week Away’ review: Finding love, acceptance and a higher power in Netflix’s Christian summer camp musical
The storyline of “A Week Away,” the Christian summer camp lark now streaming on Netflix, presents its troubled male protagonist two options: relocate (after stealing a police car, among other infractions) to a juvenile detention center, or spend a week at Camp Aweegaway, somewhere near Nashville, Tennessee.
The juvie option might’ve made for an intriguing and unexpected musical. The one we have here should please the project’s intended audience.
Orphaned at a young age, Will (Chicago-area native Kevin Quinn, whose local stage credits include “Lord of the Flies” at Steppenwolf Theatre and “Henry V” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater) starts out an unhappy camper in the midst of singing, dancing true believers. The camp director (David Koechner) has a daughter, Avery (Bailee Madison of Hallmark’s “Good Witch” series). Avery and Will spot each other, “Romeo and Juliet”-style, across a crowded introductory dance number. Bam: It’s fate, and the Lord working in mysterious yet predictable ways.
Guitar-toting Will masquerades as the cousin of bunkmate George (ensemble standout Jahbril Cook ), so as to conceal his rap sheet. The primary romance finds its auxiliary love story in the saga of George and Avery’s pal Presley (Kat Conner Sterling). Early on, George and Presley sing of their self-esteem deficits and social awkwardness in “Good Enough,” one of composer Adam Watts’s four original songs heard here. (In musical theater terms, “Good Enough” is the summer camp version of Frank Loesser’s “Been a Long Day.”)
Will’s secret must come out, eventually. Meantime screenwriters Alan Powell and Kali Bailey devote a lot of acreage to a series of camp “war games.” Flag football, dodgeball, cornhole and a tremendous amount of paintball bring out the hyper-competitive instincts in Avery, a perfectionist grieving the death of her mother, in religious skeptic Will, and in Will’s pushy romantic rival (IainTucker, an elongated version of a young Anthony Michael Hall).
Speaking of John Hughes movies: “A Week Away” certainly does. When it’s not rolling through a 10-song roster peppered with new versions of Christian Country Music standards such as “Baby Baby” (Amy Grant), “Place in This World” (Michael W. Smith) and “Big House” (Audio Adrenaline), director Roman White navigates a full load of ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and early 21st-century movie references. “Apocalypse Now” to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Pretty in Pink” to “Rain Man” to “Braveheart” to “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”: At times, “A Week Away” feels more like “Your Parents’ Trivia Contest” than a movie.
The cast generates the goodwill. Madison and Quinn bring heart and some shrewd dramatic instincts, while Cook and Sterling settle comfortably into a sincere comic key. Sherri Shepherd of “The View” enlivens things as George’s mother, another camp counselor. As the movie builds to its finale, Will takes the stage and renounces God and organized religion forever. Kidding! Kidding. That doesn’t happen. Quite the opposite happens, and if that constitutes a spoiler, I hereby renounce Satan.
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‘A WEEK AWAY’
2 stars (out of 4)
Rating: TV-PG
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Where to watch: Now streaming on Netflix
