Gay people often ignore calls from God because they come from antiquated and bigoted sources, like many of today’s modern religions.
But what if you weren’t able to ignore God’s call because it’s screaming in your soul? What if your faith is all you have, all you’ve ever known and all you’ve ever been?
Imagine you don’t have a regular job. You’re a Mormon. Your job is to convert other people to Mormonism. Your life is your job is your God is a . . . calling? But as RJ discovers, the call isn’t saying what he expected. It’s saying, “Elder Merrill is hot, and you two should, like, get it on.”
Oh God, ever so eloquent!
I’m disappointed there weren’t any SM scenes between Mormon missionaries RJ (played by Nick Ferrucci) and his roommate and spiritual superior, Elder Merrill (played by Benjamin Farmer) in The Falls. A little “sir” action might’ve livened things up a bit.
Trying to pretend that Ferrucci and Farmer can pass as 20-year-olds is ridiculous. Gabrielle Carteris, from Beverly Hills, 90210, who was basically a menopausal woman playing 16-year-old Andrea Zuckerman, was more believable casting.
The ill-fated romance between the two main characters feels stunted, and not just because they are scared of being struck down by a lightning bolt for their sin. If the intimacies of their relationship had been fleshed out in the writing, I would have been more emotionally invested in the story. Heath and Jake in Brokeback Mountain were more alluring as forbidden lovers — and that’s a problem.
The Falls is about finding yourself in God and realizing they’re the same thing. It’s a coming-of-age story (even if the actors coming of age came of age ages ago). Scenes of rejection, betrayal, pot smoking with a war hero, and a prayer or two make Mormonism easier to identify with.
Coincidentally, a few days after watching this film, two Mormon missionaries approached me earnestly on the street. As I hissed and kept walking, I almost felt guilty.
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