Released in 2022, the American mockumentary comedy film titled, Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul., is a story of a megachurch-running pastor and the first lady who try to rebuild their congregation after getting canceled for being involved in a huge scandal. So, make sure to stay till the end as we will be talking more about Honk For Jesus and its ending.
The movie is the directorial debut of Adamma Ebo, who has also written and produced this film, inspired by her 2018 released short film of the same name. This comedy film has cast actress Regina Hall in the role of the first lady and Sterling K. Brown in the role of the pastor, both being associated with the megachurch.
Other talented actors who are a part of the film include Autin Crute, Nicole Beharie, and Conphidance, all in supporting roles in the movie. Ebo’s film managed to make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23rd, 2023.
Honk For Jesus received positive reviews from critics, with many appreciating the commentary on religion and the fact that it consciously seemed to have made an effort not to drag it with cheap comedy and remarks.
The movie is a well-thought-out mockumentary, with the actors doing a great job of bringing to life the satire that this movie about organized religion has.
Honk For Jesus Ending Explained
Honk For Jesus introduces us to Regina Hall’s character, Trinitie Childs, who is the first lady of the Southern Baptist megachurch that she helps run with her pastor husband, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs, played by Sterling K. Brown. We open with the couple living an extremely comfortable life, running their church proudly, and being filthy rich.
But soon, a scandal seems to shake the very foundation on which the couple, through their hard work, built this church. Right from the time Lee-Curtis was introduced, you could guess there was something not right with him. The makers give you blatant hints about what it could be, and it is easy to guess that Lee-Curtis may be having an affair behind his beautiful wife’s back.
Though a man cheating on his wife, or even a man who claims to be really close to God, indulging in cheating is not something outrageous or unheard of. But the Lee-Curtis’ actual truth is much more dark and completely unacceptable to the part of the community he belongs.
His scandal soon blows out, and both the audience and the public find out that the Pastor who was preaching to them about God, claiming to denounce same-sex relationships, was, in fact, indulging in the same.
It was revealed that he had been seducing impressionable young men to sleep with him. This was a big deal to their community, and soon the Childs were forced to put a lock on their church. With their congregants gone, the Childs took a break, brainstorming different methods to make a comeback after a whole year.
The Comeback Plan
They think that the best way to salvage their image and help people forget the scandal is by hiring a documentary crew who could possibly help them shoot a documentary, capturing on camera how hard the two had been working for the reopening of their church on Easter Sunday.
But this plan backfires on them as the crew starts focusing more on the suspicious amount of their wealth, the closet that seemed to be drowning in branded clothes, and the fountain they had gotten built in front of the church.
There is also another couple, Keon and Shakura Sumpter, who plan on holding the opening of their church on Easter Sunday as well, and it seems that all of the congregants have decided to join their church as well. Lee-Curtis is notified that he is yet to pay compensation to the young boys he traumatized and was also told that one of them would not be accepting it at all.
Trinitie finds out, while on one of her shopping sprees, that most of her church’s former devouts would be joining the other church. Some of the congregants still believe in Lee-Curtis and attend his sermons despite his scandal.
Lee-Curtis does not seem to have changed all that much from the past year or the scandal, as he continues to pass flirty remarks at the documentary crew’s sound recording crew, trying to get to sleep with him. The Childs realize that they have to deal with the Sumpter’s situation or they will have no visitors.
A Plan B
The two couples eventually meet, and there is great underlying tension among them. The Childs politely demand from the Sumpters that they change the date of their opening, but since they refuse outright, Lee-Curtis prepones the date to two weeks before Easter Sunday.
Trinitie is asked to go out on the streets to give out flyers and ask people to honk their cars to acknowledge and get them to visit the opening of their church, but while she does that, Trinitie also gets insulted for her husband’s scandal.
She also ends up putting white paint on her face to look like a mime artist doing mime worship to the Gods, but one of the cars in the streets that has Khalil, the guy who refused to take the compensation, stops by and laughs at Trinitie for doing crazy things just to revive her husband’s reputation.
Trinite runs back to the church and confesses all about her husband’s scandal, their broken marriage, and the fact that all of their church’s devout have turned their backs on them. During her confession, the director of the documentary, Anita Bonet, finally asks her what we have been dying to know, why does she not leave her husband?
Trinitie avoids the questions and asks her to keep all of her focus on understanding this town’s culture and understanding the Childs. In the end, the couple waits for the congregants and visitors outside of their church just like they planned, two weeks before Easter Sunday. But as you would imagine, nobody rolled up except for an expensive Mustang.
The couple only gets their devout five congregants, the ones who were with them through their scandal. Soon, we find out that the Sumpters had also moved their opening date to two weeks before Easter Sunday to accommodate the Childs’ church opening. And with this, they ended up having a grand opening with a bucketload of congregants.
The Ending Explained
Trinitie, throughout the film, plays the role of a good wife, and she does it successfully. She stands by her husband through thick and thin and takes all of the insults and criticisms in place of him but eventually gets nothing for it.
She suffers from keeping her mental health and religious beliefs together and intact. But part of the sympathy we feel for her washes away when, during the car scene where Khalil and Trinitie and she tried to stop him from confronting Lee-Curtis, it hits us that the man, in the name of God and his faith used to force himself on and rape minors and Trinitie did nothing about it.
But she gets to have her moment with her monologue and how she never for a second thought that even as a witness or as a person standing on the side of this scandal, she was creating a situation where Lee, the rapist, could assert his power and influence on young minors and do whatever to them.
That she was an enabler was a thought that never crossed her mind, but while she was in the church, she told the director that the reason why she stayed with her husband was because of her faith and Christianity.
The commentary is on the two different kinds of people who promote themselves as people of faith. Trinitie is the kind that turns to her faith to look for answers and to do better, to enlighten herself, to relieve herself of her worldly burdens. For her, God is someone she turns to in order to confess, to cry, to question, but unfortunately, that is not the case for Lee.
For him, religion and faith are more like business, something that gets him power and influence over others. He takes pride not in his faith but in how that faith, in some twisted way, puts him on a pedestal and makes him better than everyone else. For him, religion was a front and more of a business, and even though he seemed like he wanted to do better by the end, he clearly did not know how to.
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