By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | "If Only," a new anti-drug film being offered to archdiocesan schools, is based on testimonies by recovering addicts and their families. Presented as a tragic parable, the film tells of Isaac, an otherwise normal teenage boy whose friends invite him to a party to which everyone is expected to bring drugs.
To get his contribution, Isaac simply takes a few doses from his mother's medicine cabinet. Then he lies to his mother, saying he'll be studying with a girl instead.
Photographer: COURTESY | Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation
James Wahlberg heads the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation.
After the party, the girl starts supplying him with more pills during class time, and his next medical exam draws the shocked attention of his mother. She sends him to a rehab center, but his friends get no such help: the film's climax has Isaac giving the eulogy for one of them.
James Wahlberg of Cooper City wrote the script; his son Jeffrey played Isaac; his brother Bob played a counselor, and his mother, Alma, portrayed Isaac's grandmother. Extras in the film include people whose families have been stricken by drugs.
During a funeral scene, Wahlberg filled the pews with some of the 250 families who had lost children and wanted to be part of the film. During the closing credits, dozens of them silently show framed pictures of their dead loved ones.
Shot in Tewksbury, in the Boston area, the half-hour film (see trailer at https://youtu.be/4SHpMHVUl-E) cost less than $100,000 to make. It was underwritten by Millennium Health, a company that specializes in drug testing.
Wahlberg at first wrote the firm's name into the script, "but they said that wasn't necessary; the story was more important than promoting themselves," he said. "That was great of them."
Despite people's differences on religion, Wahlberg insisted on a Catholic context for "If Only." Especially in the funeral scene � which takes place in a church, with a priest officiating and with an operatic female voice singing Ave Maria.
"When I talk to groups in the screenings, I talk a lot about faith in general, (and) not just my faith," Wahlberg said. "We need our faith leaders � our priests, rabbis, reverends � and our schoolteachers. We need them all for direction. We're missing that in this country."
