First off, I am obviously not a Mormon, but I also don't have any prejudice against Mormons. The movie was good as a drama. It had it's funny parts and it had it sad parts, just like you would expect from any solid drama - and I have to admit as a drama it WAS solid.
However, as a non-Mormon I naturally DIDN'T watch this movie because I wanted to see a generic Drama... I was watching this movie hoping to learn more about Mormons. But the thing is, the whole point of this movie seems to have been to portray Mormons in a realistic way. As normal human beings, with normal problems, normal fears, normal weaknesses but of course with equally normal human strengths, and normal human compassion. As such the movie might as well have not been about Mormons at all, but just as well about any other ordinary Americans.
As such I was kinda disappointed. I was hoping I would learn what made Mormons unique, instead I only learned what made them ordinary. And since I neither regarded them as saints nor as devils, them being ordinary isn't really that much of a surprise to me.
Instead I was hoping the movie would answer some of the questions I had regarding Mormons, like for example how they would deal with someone who brings up the argument that native Americans are not descendants of middle eastern Europeans and that this has been proved through DNA testing. Since there are no Mormons in my area (I live in Europe - so the whole "Did you know that Jesus came to America?" thing doesn't really get people's attention here) I would have been interested in hearing their answer to those issues, since so far I was only able to hear the accusations of their critics, but not how the Mormons would respond to it. And in the beginning it looked like I was in the right movie, since the movie started raising those questions right from the start, but instead of answering those questions and having the Mormons in the movie really respond to those issues, they just raise the questions, and then drop them unanswered in mid air. The only response to the criticisms that we get from the Mormons in the movie is either to totally devastate their believe to the point that they themselves quit being Mormons, or they manage to stay Mormons by totally ignoring everything that is questionable and simply categorically calling everything that is questioning the Mormons historical accuracy "garbage" and lies, throwing books by critics in the trash and throwing the kitchen table over in a rage if somebody leaves because of "the garbage" like the Mormons in this movie did.
Since I never met Mormons, I don't know if they are really like that. But I would like to think that in real life they are not like this and that they won't get in rage and have some perfectly logical explanation for all those critics out there , and that the movie is at fault for portraying them wrong... I would like to think that... but only having this movie to rely on and living in a place without any Mormons, I guess I will never know now.
However, as a non-Mormon I naturally DIDN'T watch this movie because I wanted to see a generic Drama... I was watching this movie hoping to learn more about Mormons. But the thing is, the whole point of this movie seems to have been to portray Mormons in a realistic way. As normal human beings, with normal problems, normal fears, normal weaknesses but of course with equally normal human strengths, and normal human compassion. As such the movie might as well have not been about Mormons at all, but just as well about any other ordinary Americans.
As such I was kinda disappointed. I was hoping I would learn what made Mormons unique, instead I only learned what made them ordinary. And since I neither regarded them as saints nor as devils, them being ordinary isn't really that much of a surprise to me.
Instead I was hoping the movie would answer some of the questions I had regarding Mormons, like for example how they would deal with someone who brings up the argument that native Americans are not descendants of middle eastern Europeans and that this has been proved through DNA testing. Since there are no Mormons in my area (I live in Europe - so the whole "Did you know that Jesus came to America?" thing doesn't really get people's attention here) I would have been interested in hearing their answer to those issues, since so far I was only able to hear the accusations of their critics, but not how the Mormons would respond to it. And in the beginning it looked like I was in the right movie, since the movie started raising those questions right from the start, but instead of answering those questions and having the Mormons in the movie really respond to those issues, they just raise the questions, and then drop them unanswered in mid air. The only response to the criticisms that we get from the Mormons in the movie is either to totally devastate their believe to the point that they themselves quit being Mormons, or they manage to stay Mormons by totally ignoring everything that is questionable and simply categorically calling everything that is questioning the Mormons historical accuracy "garbage" and lies, throwing books by critics in the trash and throwing the kitchen table over in a rage if somebody leaves because of "the garbage" like the Mormons in this movie did.
Since I never met Mormons, I don't know if they are really like that. But I would like to think that in real life they are not like this and that they won't get in rage and have some perfectly logical explanation for all those critics out there , and that the movie is at fault for portraying them wrong... I would like to think that... but only having this movie to rely on and living in a place without any Mormons, I guess I will never know now.