“Meet the Mormons” resembles a standard shot-on-digital documentary, composed as it is of images and sounds, and of talking heads that are also smiling heads. But it’s actually an often-cryptic document about the lives of six members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and even could be taken for a television documentary except at the moments that it resembles a random mass of impulses. Nearly nothing in Blair Treu’s kindly public-relations film illuminates the practices or beliefs of the church, except for a will to goodness and success, and small, seemingly telling details go unremarked: for instance, the “scripture case” carried by several characters, containing the holy books of the faith; or the odd image of a Bishop of the Church at home who consults a near-disposable paperback edition of the Book of Mormon you’d find in the side table of a Marriott motel room rather than a finer copy of great personal worth. The figures include the Naval Academy’s head football coach, who’s Samoan-American, a Costa Rican kickboxer who married into a Mormon family, an engineer in Nepal, and “The Candy Bomber,” an old white guy who threw candy to the children of Berlin, without military approval, from an American plane after the fall of Germany. (He’s a prototypical old white guy, unrelentingly cheery while chewing the same story he’s been chewing for decades.) The few modestly interesting points are odd bits of behavior, including the comments, “That’s what he brought to the table, him being different”; “My dad dances very goofily” and a figure who compares the lack of a leg to being born biracial out of wedlock. There’s no way this upbeat, information-free hodgepodge could function as a sales pitch for the religion. While reportedly produced by the Church as an infomercial to be shown at a Mormon visitors’ center in Salt Lake City, the 200-plus screen nationwide release of “Meet the Mormons” will likely go unremarked, unless by Mormons interested in a multicultural, multiracial portrait of their faith, or if you might bring along a favored ex-Mormon to provide necessary footnotes to what differentiates Mormonism from other beliefs. With Jermaine Sullivan, Ken Niumatalolo, Carolina Munoz Marin, Gail Halvorsen, Bishnu Adhikari. 78m. (Ray Pride)
“Meet the Mormons” opens Friday, October 10 at several outlying locations. The trailer is below.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published later this year.
Previews of that project on Twitter (twitter.com/chighostsigns) as well as photography on Instagram: instagram.com/raypride.
Twitter: twitter.com/RayPride
I can respect that you were looking for something more about the beliefs of the Mormon Church. You’re a critic, and you’re entitled to your opinion. Where you lose your credibility and instead show you are a just a run-of-the-mill bigot is when you begin inserting unnecessary information and start spouting your opinion as if it should be fact and instead display your ignorance. In terms of inserting unnecessary information, I find it strangely curious that you leave out the fact that the bishop is an African American, yet make sure to point out that the WWII pilot was an… Read more »
Thanks for your comment. Your insights are appreciated, and have told me more than the movie did. I certainly respect that “will to goodness,” which is why I chose that phrase. From the perspective of this outsider, “Meet the Mormons” didn’t go below the surface. I genuinely wanted to learn more. My gripe is with the film alone.
Ray – Thank you for your comments. I apologize for being a little harsh, I just felt your review was extremely biased and went far beyond just a critique of a movie because of my points in my initial post. If you genuinely want to learn more about LDS Church, then I take back my personal criticisms toward you. I frankly have little knowledge as to all of the reasons this film was created and honestly did not even know of its existence until maybe a month ago. However, in saying this, I don’t think the purpose of this film… Read more »
Thank you again. As for “odd bits of behavior,” I meant to describe the figures in the film, not Mormons in general. It turns out there is an audience for the film, with an opening-day Friday return of $1.2 million at 317 locations reported.
The thin-skinned persecution complex you see in GermanyorBust it typical of every crazy over-sensitive church member I knew. If you tell the truth about some stupid propaganda movie they churn out, even in such a measured way as Ray did here, they get butt hurt and go on the personal attack.
I think the review was very good, and I think it underestimated how vapid this movie is.
Don’t waste your money. Go see “Meet the Jehovah’s Witnesses” or “Meet the Scientologists” instead.
Ray Pride, all i can say is thank you for your feedback. Sometimes seeing it from both view points help. For Blair Treu he wanted to portray that which is good being a mormon and what God has done for these 6 individuals and throughout the movie you can feel that joy and goodness. But for others not of the faith sometimes it may add more questions than answers. I know for myself i had questions about the movie as well. But i try to focus on that which is good, no matter what it may be. Sometimes hearing negative… Read more »
[…] NewCity Film thinks, “Nearly nothing in Blair Treu’s kindly public relations film illuminates the practices or beliefs of the church, except for a will to goodness and success, and small, seemingly telling details go unremarked.” […]