Movie: Latter Days (2004)
Latter Days ( on Play.com / on Amazon.com) is a romantic drama with an impressive cast and a box cover that boasts it's "from the screenwriter of Sweet Home Alabama". Whether that is likely to sell the film with its intended audience remains a question, but the movie is quite slickly produced and clearly had a reasonably formidable budget to spend on its tale.
Christian is a classic, almost stereotypical gay man residing in LA, interested in exercise, looking good, and hooking up. Aaron is a Mormon missionary who moves in next door. This can obviously only lead to trouble. The story is saved from sinking into predictability by a fast-paced script and high standard of acting. The cast is of a high level, with a lot of recognisable household names, such as Amber Benson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jacqueline Bisset. From time to time, the film will get bogged down by the sort of unnecessary twist in the tale that makes you wish for a good script editor, but overall, the pace of the story does save it.
Unlike some films, the story has a lot of humanity to it, making the characters likeable and interesting, including the many supporting characters that populate the film. I found myself returning to this film in spite of its flaws because at its core it is good storytelling, the occasional oddity notwithstanding. It isn't always an easy or light-hearted film, and it can be quite confrontational when it probably doesn't intend to be. (See my point about a good script editor.) Overall, I found it sweet, romantic, and well worth the money.
Christian is a classic, almost stereotypical gay man residing in LA, interested in exercise, looking good, and hooking up. Aaron is a Mormon missionary who moves in next door. This can obviously only lead to trouble. The story is saved from sinking into predictability by a fast-paced script and high standard of acting. The cast is of a high level, with a lot of recognisable household names, such as Amber Benson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jacqueline Bisset. From time to time, the film will get bogged down by the sort of unnecessary twist in the tale that makes you wish for a good script editor, but overall, the pace of the story does save it.
Unlike some films, the story has a lot of humanity to it, making the characters likeable and interesting, including the many supporting characters that populate the film. I found myself returning to this film in spite of its flaws because at its core it is good storytelling, the occasional oddity notwithstanding. It isn't always an easy or light-hearted film, and it can be quite confrontational when it probably doesn't intend to be. (See my point about a good script editor.) Overall, I found it sweet, romantic, and well worth the money.