Old Fashioned (film)

Plot

Clay Walsh, a former frat boy, runs an antique shop in a small Midwestern college town. There, he has become notorious for his lofty and outdated theories on love and romance as well as for his devout belief in God. When Amber Hewson, a free-spirited young woman rents the apartment above his shop, she finds herself surprisingly drawn to his strong faith and noble ideas, which are new and intriguing to her. And Clay, though he tries to fight and deny it, simply cannot resist being attracted to her spontaneous and passionate embrace of life. Ultimately, Clay must step out from behind his relational theories and Amber must overcome her own fears and deep wounds as the two of them, together, attempt the impossible: an "old-fashioned" and God-honoring courtship in contemporary America.

Box office

The film opened early on just three screens on February 6 with a per screen average of $12,988, taking in a total of $38,965. It expanded for the four-day President's Day holiday and ended the weekend with $1,083,308 for a two-week total of $1,126,199 . The film had the largest opening weekend for a faith-based film opening on fewer than 300 screens. On February 20, the film expanded to 298 screens. As of March 3, 2015, the movie has grossed $1,914,090.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 20%, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 29 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Joe Leydon of Variety wrote that "Swartzwelder wants to engage his target audience with a tale of moral redemption through chaste romance. Trouble is, throughout a good portion of his movie, the writer-director gives off a disconcerting Norman Bates vibe". Michael Rechtshaffen of the Los Angeles Times found the film disturbing and stated that it "isn't so much cute and old-fashioned as it is acutely offensive".

The film did find some support from mainstream critics. Glenn Kenny writing for RogerEbert.com stated that while "Swartzwelder does tend to lay things on a little thick," that "It’s incredibly rare to see an American movie with a Christian perspective that’s more invested in philosophizing and empathizing than in eschatological pandering, and for that alone Old Fashioned deserves commendation." He also stated that the movie is "very well acted and beautifully shot."

Awards

Film festival screenings

Music

Milan Records released the official motion picture soundtrack on February 10, 2015; it includes both songs by a variety of artists as well as several selections from the original score by Kazimir Boyle. In addition, a second soundtrack (digital only) of previously unreleased original score tracks was released by the composer via iTunes (More Music from the Motion Picture Old Fashioned).

Novel and official companion book

In December 2014, Tyndale House Publishers released both a novelization of the Old Fashioned screenplay (written by Rene Gutteridge) as well as an official companion book for the film and the novel, The Old Fashioned Way: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Romance (written by Ginger Kolbaba).