Mysterious Ways review – ex-con marries priest in well-meaning LGBTQ+ rights drama

Mysterious Ways review – ex-con marries priest in well-meaning LGBTQ+ rights drama

This well-meaning but stifling film is all too focused on pushing its cause at the expense of its characters, who are reduced to flat ciphers

‘This is us! Not a cause!” says Samoan husband-to-be Jason (Nick Afoa) in a rare moment of self-illumination in this soapy and stiflingly well-meaning gay rights drama from New Zealand. But the film is all too focused on pushing its cause: same-sex marriage and greater flexibility of religious thought. In the process, it reduces its characters to flat ciphers and divvies up surrounding society into LGBTQ+ cheerleaders and graffiti-scrawling hate-mongers.

After being in prison, rugby coach Jason gets cosy with widowed vicar Peter (Richard Short). Peter runs an enlightened parish, with a rainbow-emblazoned billboard outside the church, but discovers the limits of tolerance when he declares his intention to marry Jason on the premises. Their nearest and dearest – including Peter’s daughter Kate (Becky McEwan), and Jason’s enigmatic gender-fluid nephew Billy (Joe Malu Folau) – are rooting for them. But with the fire-and-brimstone brigade sharpening their pitchforks, the diocese is willing to use ulterior pressure to keep the peace, including pulling funding for Jason’s youth centre.

Continue reading…

Please follow and like us:
Pin Share