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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Movies / TV / Entertainment - Latter Days |
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Tommathy Level: 21  Posts: 10/145 EXP: 42543 For next: 7400 Since: 03-18-04 From: Cloud Nine, Turn Left and I'm There~ Since last post: 25 days Last activity: 1 day |
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| Latter Days Web Site I just saw this movie yesterday and it is sooooooo good, here's someone's review of it: This is a very Protean movie with the capacity both to delight and offend (aesthetically and also logically), particularly in the case of viewers who have either a Mormon or a gay connection. I went to go see it with a couple of friends (all of us straight, one of us male, me an ex-Mormon) at the new E Street Cinema [in Washington, DC]. Our consensus at the end was that we all loved it. (LM's comment: "It's very rare that I'll think a movie is worth $9.50 to go see, but this one was totally worth it!") However, in retrospect I could see it potentially being offensive to gay people, since all the non-Mormon gay characters in the film act like commitment and meaningful sex are some sort of revolutionary radical concept that they've never heard of before. (My acquaintances may be exceptional, but I don't know even one gay person who isn't either in a serious, committed relationship or wants to be.) And as for Mormons, the scenario of a Mormon missionary saying to a prospective convert that "God HATES gay people" strikes me as unlikely - the Church's official line (back when I was growing up) was always the "God hates the sin but loves the sinner" type of rhetoric. On the other hand, truth can be more unlikely than fiction, so you never know. Also unlikely was the scene with the Church court where Aaron is excommunicated - I think that 99.99% of the people who leave the Church just stop being involved with it, rather than getting officially thrown out. Drama purists might also take offense at the cast of somewhat stereotypical characters - the huffy Mormon parents, Aaron's juvenile missionary companions, the bitter AIDS shut-in, the wannabe actor-waiters. And of course there is the de rigeur chase-one's-true-love-to-the-airport scene. But here's why it was still so delightful. It's really an unabashed, over-the-top story about True Love and Finding Oneself, and the abandon with which the themes are pursued gives it a kind of purity that shines too brightly to be obscured by any silly cliches or stock side characters. It's funny, and you like the characters, and the love scenes are hot, hot, hot. There is a scene where Christian (the gay Cassanova who is trying to win a bet that he can seduce the naive Mormon missionary Aaron) runs into a tall sprinkler and cuts himself badly on his rear end, and faints, and is helped into his apartment by Aaron. Christian pulls off his shorts to reveal backless undies along with the wound, and Aaron sponges disinfectant onto the cut and starts to talk about how he isn't squeamish, and goes into a monologue where he says all these unexpected and interesting things, and it rang very true to me in the sense that people are surprising, they have all these unexpected thoughts in them that are creative and astounding, that just come up out of nowhere. The movie is a lot about faith, too, and how the object of faith and love comes back for you to find you, even when you've given up on it entirely, or think you have - it's a wide-eyed, if borderline schlocky, vision of the miraculousness of everyday love and redemption. For the sake of truth and being who you are, you lose the things most precious to you, and then find that you've gained your own soul. E.g., Aaron thinks he's lost everything, his Church, his parents, his love interest - all just for being truthful about who he is - and he goes through hell, and comes out the other end to find that he's gained this realization of who he is, and he's surrounded by a "family" of friends, AND he gets his true love back. Again, in spite of any cliches, it's a satisfying ending, and not an untrue or impossible (albeit miraculous) one. And here are some of the things that rang true from my Mormon past: I did actually know a Mormon kid who was put into a mental institution by his neurotic parents back when we were in junior high - I don't think he ever actually got shock therapy (was that metaphorical in the film??), but he did write terrible-sounding things about it ... he wasn't put in for being gay, but for doing drugs and being generally rebellious ... but that really is the sort of thing Mormons might do! And yet there is also the way that Aaron and others in the movie are drawn to the idealism and beauty of the religion, the sense of reverence and purity. There's a part in the movie where the soundtrack has a Mormon hymn - I still remember all the words, although I haven't set foot in a church in ages: Abide with me, fast Falls the eventide, The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide. When other sources Fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, oh, Abide with me. It called up a certain nostalgia. OK, just between us, it totally had me bawling ... not that I want to go backwards, but I can see how anyone would be susceptible to falling in love with it, and it's no wonder people have a hard time leaving it, even if it's full of lies and provokes all this repression. So, yeah, if it's playing in your area, go and see it! |
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