REVIEW: ‘Singles Ward’ filled with laughs
Don’t look twice over your shoulder when heading into The Singles Ward – it’s not rated R. Just get ready to laugh. Opening today at Movies 5 and around the state of Utah, The Singles Ward delivers to moviegoers exactly what it promises – a laugh-out-loud comedy about the peculiarities of life in a singles ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Filmed in the Salt Lake City and Provo areas, The Singles Ward flows nicely with clean editing and a real story line. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about another film jumping on the Mormon bandwagon after God’s Army and Brigham City, but The Singles Ward was for real. Its 102 minutes roll by quickly. The Singles Ward is packed with celebrity cameos like former BYU football coach LaVell Edwards, Danny Ainge, Wally Joyner, Steve Young, Shawn Bradley, Thurl Bailey, SuperDell from Totally Awesome Computers, Julie Stoffer of MTV’s Real World and many more. The Singles Ward introduces us to Jonathan Jordan, played by Will Swenson, whose other credits include Gaston in Disney’s stage version of “Beauty and the Beast,” Nick in the European tour of “Fame” and Chris in a nationally touring production of “Miss Saigon.” Jonathan is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who doesn’t currently attend church and works as a stand-up comedian. He lives within the boundaries of a singles ward and plans to continue not attending until he falls for Cammie Giles, a member of the ward, played by Connie Young who was featured on Touched by an Angel in October as well as several local shows and commercials. Jonathan tries to win Cammie over, but she sees through his insincerity. Despite the fact Jonathan drives her crazy, she begins to fall for him too. They have their challenges. Jonathan struggles with the quirks of the local members, but begins to enjoy going to church again. Feelings between the two grow, and many scenes fall into that category of things all-too-familiar like the girl of one’s dreams putting in her mission papers. Déjá vu? The soundtrack to the film features renditions of many hymns and primary songs of The Church of Jesus Christ. The arrangements are interesting and fun, but I had to ask myself, “Can they do that?” According to the film’s press kit, Gerry Hart, one of the music supervisors, said, “Kids can either rock out to music with questionable lyrics or they can rock out to tunes that celebrate God.” Bands who covered the hymns and songs in The Singles Ward include Slender, Magstatic, Mr. Fusion, Mismash, Pipedream, Mighty Mahogany, Rooster, Ponchillo, The Solutions, Soul Saints and The Rockamatics. Most of the bands hail from Utah, but two come from California. Obviously, members of The Church of Jesus Christ are more apt to pick up on the more subtle jokes dealing with the opening of missionary calls, single-adult dances, creative asking out for dates and family home evening, but the film is also attracting the interest of people merely acquainted with the church. Director Kurt Hale’s first feature film really packs a punch, especially if you are able to laugh about Mormon quirks, like so-called “Mormon myths,” wards numbering in the hundreds and Elders Quorum presidents. Sure, there are a bunch of people who don’t know about any of this stuff and Hale told us that if people want to learn about the church, talk to the missionaries. The movie is just for fun. The writers do a great job tying up the ends of the story into a nicely-packaged, funny, real film. Go see it. Get ready to laugh. The Singles Ward opens Friday at Movies 5, located at 2400 N. Main St. Take a date. After all, you may just go with your future companion. Look for Hale’s next films, The R.M., which will start production in May and Church Ball, which will be due out next year.
Grade: A