This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Don't Drink the Koolaid!
Plot Overview
As this movie would have it one Joseph
Smith (1805–1844) after thoroughly researching the major
Christian denominations—Presbyterian, Methodist, and
what-have-you—rejected them and was given some golden plates
by the angel Moroni, which he translated to start the Latter Day
Saints Movement, aka
Mormonism. He was part of a succession of prophets including Adam, Noah,
and Elijah. His revelation allowing him multiple “wives,”
however, put him in disrepute with his contemporaries who
suspected it was a ruse to allow him to fornicate with a
sixteen-year-old girl.
Two Mormon missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) while pounding the pavement are scoffed at and one has an outer garment torn to reveal her “magic underwear.” That some would personally rely on it to ward off evil shows they are accustomed to abuse. The church protects them with a sign-out/sign-in sheet, sending them out by twos, and insisting there be a woman present when sisters evangelize a man in his home.
A reclusive Englishman
Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) distracts them with engaging banter
while they await the appearance of his timorous wife from the
kitchen where she's baking them a pie, whose aroma they can smell.
But it's just a scented candle, the timer on the front door is
stuck shut, and the affable host would make them jump through
hoops—leaps in the dark—before they can leave.
Ideology
Here is well illustrated the benefits of operating with a partner à la (Eccl. 4:9-12) “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
“They have a good reward for their labour.” Walking
together they have opportunity to discuss aspects of birth
control their church doesn't tell them about, viz. whether or not
a mega condom is in fact sized larger than a normal one. One girl
tells the other that her friend's husband has an elephantine
penis so he needs the larger size. Sisters need to be able to
compare notes with one another, because Mormons can't be expected
to get abortions, and they're not going to do field research,
either, like the heathen in a Jean Auel novel where:
the dark man … was often the object of unusual attention by women. The initial surprise of his appearance seemed to arouse curiosity about what other differences he might have. He sometimes wondered if every woman at the Summer Meetings had to find out for herself that he was, indeed, a man like every other man. Not that he objected— (13)
While ascending cascading stairs, carrying their bicycles, one girl tells the other that for each flight up, their husbands will be hotter. The sisters wouldn't have put themselves into the slimming exercise without each other's support. They have a good reward for their labor.
“For if they fall, the one will lift up his
fellow.” When Sister Barnes collapses, Sister Paxton uplifts her.
“But woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Mr. Reed is a loner. When he collapses, he's in trouble.
“Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can
one be warm alone?” One sister wants to come back as a
butterfly landing on her loved one's finger to let her know
it's she. The butterflies here seek the warmth of ceiling
lights, or of human fingers.
“And if one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not
quickly broken.” Over pie the two sisters team up against
“The Prophet” (Elle Young) sent to deceive them, and
she going off script joins them to mess with the instigator.
Production Values
“” (2024) was written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. It stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. I liked Grant in this villainous role better than in his usual seedy ones. The two female leads each had some Mormon background that informed her performance. Mormon Elder Kennedy was played by Topher Grace who was careful not to upstage the church.
MPA rated it R for some bloody violence. It had good
dialogue, studied direction, and a neat musical score. The house
was a human roach trap. It was filmed in Squamish, British
Columbia, Canada. Runtime is 1 hour 51 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
It featured an iteration heresy by which Christianity is supposedly but an update of earlier religions the way the game Monopoly was derived from the forgotten game Landlords and various pop songs from their predecessors. The Mormon girls did a righteous job of refuting this heresy of Mr. Reed's, which seems somehow backwards from the expected English scholar putting paid to Mormon upshots. What is this world coming to?
Another iteration is one regarding
temperance. Mormons and all Christians are required to be temperate
in all things. Mormons historically have been seriously
temperate with alcohol and coffee. When caffeinated soft drinks
arrived on the scene, the Mormon church made no specific rule
regarding them, but they would still be governed by general
strictures regarding temperance. Due to Prohibition the society at
large became familiar with temperance with alcohol. So as not to
confuse people about its broader application, modern Bible
translators substituted self-control to refuse other
substances as well. This has unintended consequences, namely,
(Acts 9:5) “And he said,
Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou
persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”
Saul used self-control to resist the pricking of his conscience in
order to go on persecuting Christians, and the same could apply to
persecuting Mormons who for their part still use the KJV with it's word
temperance intact.
Their main prophet is also an iteration. Joseph Smith's mother wanted his older brother Alvin to start a new church, but when Alvin died at 25, his mantle got passed on to Joseph at 17. Whether at that tender age he mastered church scholarship or was just a teenager with raging hormones, well, duh.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Auel, Jean M.. The Mammoth Hunters. Copyright © 1985 by Jean M. Auel. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1985. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org