The Falls

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!

I've read other reviews of this film and I have to say, the negative reviews are trite. IT'S AN INDEPENDENT FILM! Production quality isn't on par with a multi-million dollar film, but the actors portraying these flawed people are believable. Isn't that what we actually look for in any film? I have watched all three of these, back-to-back more than once because I like crying and this story makes me cry. I really can't say which of the three I like the most since all three touch my heart, and I sincerely have cried during all three. I accidentally saw the first installment then got up, after going to bed, to watch the 3rd. I will watch them again, 1-2-3.

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" 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."

Thank God for indie films, all puns intended. The Falls is a sensitive, nuanced treatment of Mormonism, sexual orientation and the fierce battles between commitment to a greater cause and following one's own truth. The similarities between this religion's place in our society and the gay rights movement is the film's cleverest and most meaningful contribution. Utterly convincing, outstanding acting by Nick Ferrucci, Benjamin Farmer and especially Brian Allard as a lonely Gulf War vet. I wanted a little more background development for the two leads, and an abbreviated fight scene was jarringly awkward, but that didn't take away much from the movie and its messages. The Falls leaves you with something you won't soon forget.