I Can Only Imagine 2, 2026,
Directed by Andrew Erwin and Brent Mccorkle.
Starring John Michael Finley, Milo Ventimiglia, Sophie Skelton, Arielle Kebbel, Sammy Dell, Trace Adkins, Dennis Quaid, Joshua Bassett, Justin Byrd, Nicole DuPort, Abby Glover, Mark Furze, Randy McDowell, Island Austin, Tamiko Robinson Steele, Aaron Benward, Jake Miles, Robert Way, Luke Vollrath, and Maddie Cravens.
SYNOPSIS:
Bart Millard, lead singer of MercyMe, faces a personal crisis at the peak of his success. As his world unravels, he struggles with his beliefs and inner demons while seeking a path through adversity.
Here is how unshakably familiar some of these faith-based movies (especially the musician-centric types) are: prior to watching directors Andrew Erwin and Brent Mccorkle’s I Can Only Imagine 2, I did a deep dive attempting to confirm if I had written about or at the very least seen the first film, something I was positive I had done. After searching for a review, looking the film up on my Letterbox’d, and even scouring through my emails for a screening invite (I suppose it’s possible I had gone to one yet didn’t write a review or log it as I wasn’t diligently keeping my diary up to date back then), I came up with nothing. And yet even after reading the plot summary, hell, even while watching the sequel, I kept experiencing that same Mandela effect of striking familiarity, that feeling of “I SWEAR I have seen the first film”. Another contributing factor could be that it seems I have also seen Dennis Quaid in similar religious fare, playing some variation of a deadbeat dad, countless times.
I’m not interested in solving that mystery once and for all. What matters most is that there is a blueprint for these movies, which generally involve tumultuous family dynamics, a terminal illness, and someone (in this case, Bart Millard of the country music group MercyMe) who staunchly believes in God, with everything falling into place and mostly working out in the end. Some of these films fare better than others; those that work more effectively avoid overdoing religious preaching while maintaining a focus on community. This is also important to state to demonstrate that I am not coming into this genre with an anti-bias. The Christian component of I Can Only Imagine 2 (penned by Brent Mccorkle) isn’t even a problem here; it’s the rest of the movie that is either off-putting, frustrating, confounding, cluttered, hokey, or boring with an overreliance on fictionalized concert performances.
With an unwieldy structure that often flashes back and forward, jumping around in time for no apparent reason, John Michael Finley is back as Bart Miullard, now with a family, but is stalling music career. He is still capable of selling out arenas alongside MercyMe, but he also hasn’t written a chart-topping song since the titular one that came about in the culmination of the first film. Now with several children, Bart’s oldest, teenager Sam (Sammy Dell), is an aspiring drummer who also mostly keeps indoors due to his type 1 diabetes and the strict upkeep of injecting insulin shots on a tight schedule.
The latter has affected his life and relationship with his father to a strenuous degree that comes across more as filmmakers hunting for conflict rather than authenticity, which is not to doubt that diabetes and insulin shots are tough to manage and stay on schedule, but that this movie acts as if it’s impossible for the boy to amount to anything in life in that condition. Nevertheless, father and son routinely argue, which leads to a hearty talk between Bart and his wife, Shannon (Sophie Skelton), who stresses that Sam can’t be cooped up inside the house and that it could do some good if he took him on tour with the band.
There is also some shuffling around occurring within the band, with Tim Timmons (Milo Ventimiglia) joining the rotation as an opening acoustic guitar act. For some reason, the filmmakers don’t think the father-son drama is enough, so it is quickly revealed that Tim, who has just found out he is going to become a father, also has cancer, which took the life of Bart’s father (played by Dennis Quaid) in the first film. It’s also worth mentioning that among those unnecessary flashbacks is an extended one that mostly serves to bring Dennis Quaid’s dead character back in the sequel for another paycheck.
To be clear, yes, it is understood that this is based on a true story and that these individuals presumably did interact this way, which eventually led to another hit song by Bart, written in collaboration with Tim. However, as a film (and one that already spends roughly a third of its running time letting this ensemble perform songs), it is overstuffed and clunky, never allowed to settle into an emotional rhythm that feels grounded. There are corny subplots about shooting stars and fears of needles, although they don’t compare to how off-putting it is that Tim, for some inexplicable reason, finds humor in feigning to the band that his cancer is worsening. At one point during a brief hospital stay, he jokes that he tried to get the nurses to have the nearby machines show that his heart rate was flatlining when they walked in, simply because he thought it would be funny. It’s not. It is almost sociopathic, yet played cute.
Sure, the faith-based messaging and the music aren’t for this critic. That doesn’t excuse every other aspect of I Can Only Imagine 2 from inducing head-scratching and becoming a plain, messy family drama (blood-related and fellow musicians) with such hollow characters and storytelling that the only thing left is the blunt messaging. There is no denying that this truth is fascinating and inspiring on some level, leaving us left to imagine what could have been.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
