Mysterious Ways review – ex-con marries priest in

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.