MOVIE REVIEW: And it came to pass . . . and failed
Grade: D-
I’ve often heard people speculate on the prospect of bringing “The Book of Mormon” to the big screen. The challenge of bringing such an epic text to film – one that covers only a slightly shorter time period than the Bible – has always been daunting, and many have hoped that this fall’s “Book of Mormon Movie Volume 1: The Journey” would be the first step in doing the book cinematic justice.
Sorry kids, but this ain’t the case.
I’ll spot the filmmakers two things. First, the challenge of bringing any text, let alone a religious text, to film, is immense. Satisfying “Lord of the Rings” fans is difficult enough, but no filmmaker would presuppose to crystallize all the personal experience and intricacies connected to a text like “The Book of Mormon.” Second, it’s more than obvious that the film was shot on less than a Hollywood budget.
But despite those problems, the root of what’s so terribly wrong with “The Book of Mormon Movie” lies in issues that could have easily been resolved.
The biggest culprit is the script itself. A disclaimer at the beginning of the film indicates that the movie was made outside of, and with no endorsement, of the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It would be easy to suppose that this would mean much of the original story would be altered.
Again, this isn’t the case. The film actually follows the book pretty faithfully. It’s the execution that stinks. Many events take place with little or no effort to put them in context, and the credibility of the stories suffers. And even while the movie only tries to retell the first book and a half of the original text, it’s still too much to cover thoroughly.
The biggest error with the text was the idea of mixing contemporary dialogue with the “thee’s” and “thou’s” of “The Book of Mormon.” When you add lousy acting and bargain-basement special effects, you have a result that is misery to watch.
Many people will say “The Book of Mormon” just isn’t a text you can translate to film. Baloney. The LDS church itself has made a number of varied-length films, such as those created for seminary videos, that have done an excellent job of retelling “Book of Mormon” stories.
The blame here lies with the writing and the acting, plain and simple.
A line from a James Taylor song reads, “Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.” “The Book of Mormon Movie” was made with the best of intentions, but if the filmmakers want to produce nine more in the series, as is rumored, they’d better start picking up the pieces.
Josh Terry is a graduate student in the American studies program. Comments may be sent to jterry@english.usu.edu