After failing to capture enough votes to secure the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America, Rick Santorum has now failed to capture the attention of the moviegoing public as well.
The first film from EchoLight Studios, a Christian film company where Santorum landed as CEO after the 2012 presidential race, has been tanking at the box office since its release in November. Called The Christmas Candle, the movie’s website describes it as “a timeless holiday film for the entire family.”
Taking place in the fictional English village of Gladbury, The Christmas Candle is described by EchoLight thusly: “When David Richmond (Hans Matheson), a progressive young minister, arrives in Gladbury, the villagers discover a new formula for miracles: good deeds and acts of kindness. While David’s quest to modernize Gladbury sets him at odds with the old world candlemaker, he finds an unlikely ally in the lovely skeptic, Emily Barstow (Samantha Barks). Now, the fiery candlemaker must fight to preserve the legacy of the Christmas Candle. But when the candle goes missing, the miraculous and human collide in the most astonishing Christmas the village of Gladbury has ever seen.”
But not even the presence of “singing phenomenon, Susan Boyle, in her feature film debut,” as the site put it, could draw moviegoers. According to The Guardian, the film has only grossed $1.6 million since its release two weeks ago.
It hasn’t been too popular with the critics either. “The Christmas Candle is a determinedly retro-minded holiday saga that contains no foul language, gruesome violence, or indeed anything beyond the mildest suggestion of hanky-panky, and for a certain portion of the moviegoing public, these absences alone would be enough to warrant a recommendation,” writes Peter Sobczynski for RogerEbert.com. “The trouble is that the filmmakers have also neglected to include such other elements as wit, style, energy or anything resembling a coherent narrative. The end result is the kind of vaguely distasteful Yuletide concoction that viewers normally find playing on cable channels that they don’t even realize that they have.”
Here’s the trailer:
Santorum, a staunch social conservative, announced in June that he’d be taking the top role at the Dallas-based EchoLight Studios, “the first movie company to produce, finance, market and distribute faith-based, family films across all releasing platforms,” according to a press release put out at the time.
“Dallas can become the Hollywood of the faith-and-family movie market,” Santorum said then of the venture, in an interview with Mike Huckabee on Fox News. “And the keys are great content and economic success using money from all over to build out the industry and distribute an authentic product truthful to the faith in people’s lives.”
He has also described how he would like EchoLight “to sort of be the Pixar of faith.”
For classic Hollywood movies watch Hollywoodland via FilmOn.com:
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