THE SINGLES WARD A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
God, I love modern Mormon movies, a basically ignored movie genre. Kurt Hale's THE SINGLES WARD is like a funny and breezy sitcom, featuring a PG-rated romance between Jonathan and Cammie. The twentysomething lovers are played by Will Swenson and Connie Young, two attractive and likeable actors. With warm, genuine chemistry between them, they make a really cute couple -- eventually that is, since they initially get started off on the wrong track.
(First a warning. If you're not comfortable with characters who aren't shy about their religious convictions, Mormon movies may not be your cup of tea. Hollywood pictures have trained us to understand than the norm for families is to be dysfunctional and that religious beliefs are completely irrelevant. Mormon movies are a lot of fun, but the characters' firm moral foundations are based on their religion, which they aren't embarrassed to talk about.)
Jonathan is a standup comic who derives most of his jokes from his Mormon heritage. ("I did a Mormon version of an X-rated movie. There was no sex, just all guilt.") Jonathan has a serious problem. After his wife left him and the church, he ended up being a divorced Mormon. A divorced Mormon, he tells us, is like "a 76 Pinto with a gas leak." Nobody wants to come near. His divorced status, coupled with his lack of resolve, causes him to drift away from the church and to begin violating its rules. Some of his humorous examples include unblocking MTV from his cable system and renting all the DIE HARD videos as well as the uncut version of NEWSIES.
One day, Cammie calls. She is the head of the local singles ward, which is the social club where Mormons go to find a spouse. He is rude to her, which he spends half of the movie trying to get beyond. That they do finally get together is no surprise, but, since they were clearly made for each other, who cares? Theirs is a simple and heart-warming story, full of mirth that should charm all but the most cynical.
THE SINGLES WARD runs 1:40. It is rated PG for "mild thematic elements and brief language" and would be acceptable for all ages.
The film is playing in limited release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
========== X-RAMR-ID: 32913 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 786037 X-RT-TitleID: 10001180 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 3/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews