The R.M.

A review here compares this movie to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Being a Greek Mormon myself, I concur to a certain degree. The performances were good, Kirby Heyborne's facial expressions and reactions really carry the movie, Will Swenson more or less reprises his role from Single's Ward and Britani Bateman perfectly balances Mormon moral principles, in every sense, and being plain hot. The first half of the movie more than anything I felt sorry for the poor guy, although there were some good laughs, too. Most of the humor though is based on Mormon stereotypes - if You are not acquainted with that, I am afraid You will not get much out of this flick. I think that there is a message for Mormons, that righteousness always pays off, even it does not look like this at all, in the end you will ride with the hot general authorities daughter towards sunset; the message for non-Mormons IMHO is, "Mormons are an odd people, but they can laugh at themselves"

In the film "The R.M.", Jared Phelps, played by Kirby Heyborne, returns home from a two-year mission for his church. Out in 'the field' Jared lived the life of a missionary, teaching and preaching a spiritual message to complete strangers. When Phelps finally returns home, he finds that maybe he should have stayed out in the field. Upon his arrival to the airport, Jared finds no one there waiting for him. No friends. No family. No one. A bit disappointed, he justifies this by saying to a stranger: "My mom is probably just getting some flowers." His return to his house is even worse. He goes home, or at least to where home was two years ago, when he left for his mission, but his family has moved! Finally, upon arriving to his 'new' house, he learns that his family thought his return date home was a month later, his mom is pregnant with her seventh child, and the family now has a Tongan foreign exchange student living in the house and sleeping in Jared's bedroom. This is hardly the homecoming Jared anticipated. Not only that, but also after only a few days of being home, he finds out that he has lost his job, and his girlfriend is engaged to someone else. How awful! The movie continues with things that go wrong in Jared's post-mission life. After much prayer, Jared tries to adjust to life as a returned missionary.

The critical intention of director Kurt Hale was to show the audience how missionaries adjust to their lives after their missions, when they have to enter back into reality. The critical technique is obvious through the secondary characters, inside humor, and minor background music that help to make the movie greater.

Jared is a young Mormon man who has just finished his two year missionary stint. He believes he is coming back to a job and plans on proposing to his longtime girlfriend. Horrors! After buying the ring, he learns his girlfriend is two weeks away from marrying someone else and his job is down the drain, too. Not only that, but his parents have sold his car and adopted a young man who is now inhabiting Jared's old room! Whew. Well, there is the den and Jared snags a job as a repo man for a rental company, among other prospects. And, he valiantly tries to sell the ring to improve his cash flow. But, things look up when he meets Kelly. She is the daughter of an important church man and she is beautiful. Can she possibly be interested in Jared? Everyone will take a shine to this film whether they are Mormon or not. The actors are engaging and funny, the script is snappy and the production values are good. There are a few insider jokes about Mormons which may fly over the viewer's head but it does not matter in the long run. If you are searching for another romantic comedy with good principles, put your faith in this review and find this movie. The film delivers a dose of happiness for any member of the viewing audience.

I think a lot of people have seen "Single's Ward" by the same writing/production team and expected "The R.M." to be the sequel. I know that I went under that impression, so it came as quite a surprise when the same ol' cast from Single's Ward were playing very different parts. It was a good movie that very much reminded me of an LDS version of the "Meet the Parents" (Nothing seems to go right). While there were many funny scenes that most any returned missionary could relate to, the film seemed to try to take the R.M. stereotypes a little to the extreme. I felt the plot suffered a little just to get a laugh. All in all I enjoyed the movie and hope that the Hales continue to put out films. If you're LDS and you want a good laugh I don't think you can go wrong with this one.

I am not LDS, but I've lived in Utah 25 years and am a professional genealogist, so I understood and appreciated lot of the "in-jokes." I caught this movie on KJZZ , a local independent broadcast network, on a Sunday night and while I came in a bit late, I kept watching - even to the detriment of my regular Sunday night shows.

I can see where some people might be offended by the exaggerated portrayal of LDS culture, but from a non-Mormon point of view, it's refreshing to know that there are some LDS people who can poke fun at themselves and their culture.

If I were to pick my favorite scene, without "spoiling" it, I would say it was the restaurant scene and the names of some of the dishes.

I've been telling my LDS friends about the movie all day and they've all laughed at the scenes I've described and those who've seen it have had nothing bad to say about it.

If it is available as a rental, I wouldn't mind seeing it again.