Review of the Movie Latter Days
By Andy Heath
I remember watching Latter Days a few years ago and what a truly amazing movie it was. To be honest, I'm not even a big fan of movies, but I liked that one! Here's a bit of the plot:
Aaron, a Mormon missionary, moves to California to proselytize his religion. While there, he meets Christian (yes, pun intended, I'm sure), an openly gay man that makes a bet with his friends that he can seduce the very attractive Aaron and gain passage inside his pants. But then Christian - for the first time in his shallow life - falls in love with Aaron. They kiss one evening just as Aaron's roommates return home and so Aaron is sent back to his family in shame.
That's all I'm telling you; you'll have to watch the movie yourself, if you haven't seen it already! I would highly recommend you do so, as this is quite a special film. The actors are straight, but they do an excellent job of portraying same-sex love. The film is simply spectacular, and get ready to cry for joy at the end.
One thing I love about Latter Days is that it is gay literature that, for the most part, accurately portrays the pain of gay men in a religious family. I know that parents often kick gay teenagers out of the house once they find out about their children's sexual orientation. Latter Days does a great job or showing the pain Aaron feels as his family alienates him.
For my readers that don't know about gay pain, our pain stems from a collapse of our social structure. It happens to all of us whenever we muster the courage to come out of the closet. Latter Days does a very good job of demonstrating that social collapse as Aaron is thrown out of the closet by his Mormon friends. It also shows how a shallow gay man comes to terms with his own humanity and the humanity of others by dealing with his own pain in a quasi-relationship that can't seem to go anywhere because of Aaron's deep faith in God.
You can watch Latter Days on a number of levels, like all good films. Certainly you can watch it simply as an interesting and entertaining story full of drama and conflict that is beautiful resolved. But I would encourage those of you that choose to watch it to do so with an eye for the spectacular and surprising nuances that will give you a glimpse into gay pain. For my readers that are gay, I think you might even understand yourself a little better after watching this film.
For what it's worth, I recommend that everyone watch Latter Days. It is an appropriate film for any adult to watch, though it does have a mild sex scene in it. Please write to me at some point when you watch it and let me know what you thought.
