The Falls

"The Falls" had the potential to be exploitative and inflammatory, considering its dual subjects: Mormons and homosexuality. Thankfully, it is neither. Credit is due to writer and director Jon Garcia, who deftly navigates a minefield of controversy to create a moving story of one young missionary's personal journey. It is a journey that is admittedly hard to capture in under two hours, so this telling is, of a necessity, elliptical.

Mormons will view this film in a completely different light than non-Mormons, despite the director's care in trying not to offend potential audiences. A touching film about two missionaries is not the same thing as a film about two missionaries touching.

Garcia firmly believes that he has made the former: the story of a personal journey and finding love. A film that is respectful of the religion that makes that love fraught with difficulty. And indeed he has.

Nevertheless, many devout Mormons will see the latter: a profane, sacrilegious exploitation of one of the proudest products of the Church--its missionaries. Garcia, who took great pains to learn about the Church, even so far as taking the missionary lessons and attending services for months (with no pretense), may not fully appreciate one peculiarity about Mormons.

Ever since 1838, when Governor Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri issued the infamous "Extermination Order" to shoot any Mormon within the state on sight, Latter-Day Saints have lived with a siege mentality: it's us against the world. (This was most recently evident in the campaign of Mitt Romney.) Mormons are suspicious of any outsider who tries to portray their faith. They seek to influence, control, and even orchestrate such portrayals in most cases to assure that they and their faith are not disparaged.

Missionaries are to devout Mormons what servicemen are to patriotic Americans: they are heroes beyond reproach, at least while they are serving. The Mormon discomfort with Garcia's film will stem not so much from the subject of homosexuality, which most Mormons are now aware exists among even their devoutest members, but the fact that a less-than-sacred portrait of the Church's missionaries has been painted for all the world to see.

The Mormons' problem with this film and Garcia's triumph are one and the same: the brutal honesty of the story. Missionaries are not all angels. And they are not all the self-assured messengers of the Gospel that they attempt to be, sometimes with great personal struggle. But Garcia exposes the weaknesses of his characters lovingly. He does not belittle them or shame them or parade them as evidence of Mormonism's failure.

I understand the Mormon discomfort and the belief that, while some missionaries struggle with their sexual feelings, to indulge them WHILE serving a mission is a disgrace, never mind what happens afterward. But I also understand Garcia's message that it takes a brave and self-assured person, missionary or no, to stand up to such a formidable force as one's faith and family combined, and say "I am not ashamed of who I am."

Very enjoyable, meaningful and interesting. Engaging from the very beginning. Sure, the acting could have been better ...along w/the production values (for which I'm deducting a couple stars). But considering this film was made on a shoestring, it still manages to impress and tell a wonderful story about love, humanity and struggle to find one's place in the world!

There has never been a movie that has resounded so perfectly as this one had. As I am writing this, I am currently a 16 year old boy and have undergone so much strife, pain, and heartache just from living, more than the average 16 year old should ever have. In "The Family: A Proclomation to the World" they clearly state over and over that marriage between man and woman is a sacred covenant ordained of God. This had to be the greatest cause of my lack of faith in the church, even though I was born and raised in it. The teachings of the evilness of homosexuality, a part of someone that is neither chosen nor even wanted in most cases, led me to think that there was something wrong with the church since I had to pretend to be someone I'm not all for the sake of not wanting to be looked at with disgust or shame. It is truly a hell to have to grow up trying hard to be someone else, that I don't even know who i really am anymore. Since I found out I was gay, and as everyone else around me started maturing, it grew increasingly harder to socialize to even the closest friends I had, since I was lying to them about such a huge, unforgettable part of me. As a result, it is because of this forced fake lifestyle, I believe it has caused me to be the socially awkward person I am today. I honestly believe that if I could have been honest with my parents and everyone around me and been encouraged to be who I am from the start, I would have been able to have developed better basic socialization skills as well as a better faith in a church that I grew up in. I'm sorry for the excessive length of this, but I had to express myself somehow, since I can't say this to my own mom. Thank you if you actually read this...

The Falls is a simple and bittersweet tale of two young men from the LDS church who are partnered in a mission. How could the higher ups of the church know that they were partnering two latently gay men trying to sexually define themselves. When the passion bursts forth it does is explode. It tends to that the longer you are in a closet.

Nick Ferucci and Benjamin Farmer are the two missionary elders who've been assigned to Oregon for their duration. One thing this film did not show is the fact that these missionaries don't necessarily do their two year hitch in the same place. You might be assigned Buffalo for six months, Brooklyn for another, and then finish up in Birmingham, United Kingdom. These two were lucky they had enough time to find themselves. And find an awakening sexual experience that was deeply satisfying.

I feel for these kids, they've lived a sheltered existence in a cocoon of a church. For Mormon Elders I always try to be nice to them making it clear I don't believe in their doctrine and I'm not trying to get in their pants. These young ones will eventually become the old ones who will get the timely revelations to change that doctrine. There was a scene where the two kids were invited to a person's house simply to be berated. I'd say the berator had more issues than these two latently gay young men did.

There was another scene where some redneck homophobe thought them being too affectionate and got a nice beat down for his troubles from Ferucci. He had reason to hate Mormons and gays in his mind. Our older Mormons starting with Mitt Romney forget that they were once a most persecuted people in the USA and world wide.

Lastly a free spirited friend they made played by Brian Allard after they've tasted of love gives them a taste of marijuana. Allard is a disabled veteran from Iraq and makes Ferucci and Farmer truly rethink a lot of paradigms they've been taught to accept.

Though Latter Days also about Mormons and homosexuality is a more widely known film, this one has a lot of merit and should be better known.

The Falls explores the Mormon Faith and it's relationship to gay love when two male missionaries develop feelings for one another.

The depth of research and the excellent acting by everyone involved makes this movie a "must buy" DVD.

The dialog was real for what is a very sensitive topic. I hope that people of the Mormon faith can see that special care and respect was taken towards their religion. However, the movie does point out the unnecessary conflict LGBT Mormons must go through.

Jon Garcia is an amazing talented director and I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.