Latter Days

Plot synopsis:
Elder Aaron Davis, a young Mormon from Pocatello, Idaho, is sent to Los Angeles with three other missionaries to spread the Mormon faith. They move into an apartment next to openly gay party boy Christian Markelli and his roommate Julie, an aspiring singer. Christian and Julie work as waiters at Lila's, a trendy restaurant owned by retired actress Lila Montagne.
Christian makes a bet with his co-workers that he can seduce one of the Mormons, and soon realizes that Aaron, the most inexperienced missionary, is a closeted homosexual. Aaron and Christian become acquainted after several encounters in the apartment complex. When Christian accidentally cuts himself on a metal hose reel and faints, Aaron helps him indoors and cleans his wound. Christian attempts to seduce Aaron, but the hesitant Mormon becomes upset by Christian's remark that sex "doesn't have to mean anything." Aaron accuses him of being shallow and walks out. Worried that Aaron is correct, Christian joins Project Angel Food, delivering meals to people with AIDS.
Aaron's fellow missionary, Paul Ryder, has a cycling accident. Returning to his apartment, a distraught Aaron encounters Christian, who tries to comfort him with a hug. Both men are overwhelmed by their feelings and end up kissing, failing to notice the return of Aaron's roommates. Aaron is sent home in disgrace, leading Christian to confront Ryder, who is angry that Christian corrupted Aaron for no reason. Christian admits that he initially just wanted to win a bet, but says "it's not about that" anymore. Recognizing Christian's distress, Ryder tells him that Aaron's flight has a five-hour layover in Salt Lake City.
Christian finds Aaron standing in the snow outside the airport terminal. Christian confesses his love, and despite his misgivings, Aaron admits his own feelings of love. With all flights canceled due to a snowstorm, Christian and Aaron spend an intimate night in a motel. When Christian awakes, he finds Aaron gone. Aaron's pocket watch, a family heirloom, has been left behind. Christian returns to Los Angeles. In Idaho, Aaron is excommunicated by the church elders, led by his own father, Farron, who is the stake president. Aaron is rejected by his father and scolded by his mother, who tells him that he needs to pray for forgiveness. When Aaron suggests that he might be gay, his mother slaps him. Overwhelmed by despair, Aaron attempts suicide. He is subsequently sent by his parents to a treatment facility to be cured of his homosexuality.
Christian is desperate to find Aaron and locates his home address and phone number. Aaron's mother informs him that "Thanks to you, my son took a razor to his wrists; thanks to you I have lost my son." Believing that Aaron is dead, Christian spends the next few days thinking continually about Aaron. Julie discovers an entry about Christian's feelings in his cellphone journal and uses it as the basis for her new song. Christian travels to the Davis home in Idaho, where he tearfully returns Aaron's watch to his mother. During an encounter with Julie, she hesitantly shows him her new video, which upsets Christian, realizing that part of the lyrics came from his personal journal without his consent. Julie tells Christian that she hoped something good would come from it.
In the treatment facility, Aaron hears a female voice singing and investigates. He discovers a music video playing on television, the song performed by Julie. The video prompts Aaron to return to Los Angeles in search of Christian. Upon arriving at Christian's apartment, Aaron is heartbroken when a stranger answers the door. Thinking that Christian has returned to his party boy ways and moved on, and having nowhere else to go, Aaron makes his way to Lila's restaurant, having befriended the owner while on missionary work after her life partner died. Christian, who happens to be working there, comes out and is overjoyed to see Aaron alive. They reconcile and later celebrate Thanksgiving with Christian's co-workers. Lila tells everyone that, no matter what, they will always have "a place at my table, and a place in my heart".

Tags: romantic

Review:
I'm not going to go into my entire life story here, but I will tell you that i'm a straight person, so it may seem a little odd that I'd like to watch this movie.
I know what it's like to be shunned from the people you've grown up with, not exactly how aaron does, but I have a definite feeling and this movie went straight to my heart.
You would think that the Church would offer some time of assistance to those of us who have/do stuggle with being gay--but the sad reality is that you are cut off just like the movie depicted and sadly, cut off from your family and shamed within the community.
Trust me, its better to see this unfold in a movie than to have lived it.While it may be steeped in stereotype and clichés, as many critics have suggested, Latter Days manages to expose many shallow traits among the major elements in this story: organized religion, gay culture and even Hollywood itself (I love how Cox portrayed L.A. as an additional "character" in the movie).I thought that the acting was terrific, especially Sandvoss as Aaron Davis.
More importantly, Latter Days affirms the profound joy and genuine love gay people do discover with one another.The storyline in short, a closeted Mormon Missionary from Idaho, Aaron Davis, moves to LA where he ends up living next door to a hot swinging gay boy, Christian, who has all the depth of reality TV.
I doubt that there is a gay or bi-man alive who can see this movie and not fall in love with Sandvoss' character, Aaron Davis.
Sandvoss is totally believable as a sensitive, loving, spiritual person whose humanity is profoundly more life affirming than his religious mentors or the sophisticated freethinking idealists of West LA.The plot and its various twists sometimes come off as a bit far fetched.
I love so much about this movie: the music, the cinematography, the acting, the story, and all the Mormon clichés.
Jay Cox, the cast and the crew for such a brilliant production.Yesterday I watched "Latter Days" for the first time.At first I thought it might be similar to the movie "Priest", which I liked very much for showing a gay priest out of the closet.
But "Priest", maybe due to its restrict Catholic Ideological notions, didn't supply my spectator's needs by revealing a profound sad end."Latter Days", on the other hand, broke that concept (and some other ones as well, such as the Mormon's principles); presenting a tender and cheerful story, leading it to a happy and emotive end, and yet arousing a feeling of God's blessing and hope.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes astoundingly beautiful gay love stories!.
This sitcom-sounding set-up leads to a $50 bet made among the restaurant wait staff to see if Christian can bed Aaron, obviously leading to complications that look anything but promising to either the characters or the viewer.Fortunately, the film improves marginally once the two get together, even though the evolution of their relationship is inevitable according to the conventions set forth by Cox. What is intriguing at this point is that Aaron's self-acceptance as a gay man is not as automatically liberating as one would expect.
The movie resonates most when it deals directly with the restricted attitudes of the Mormon Church as embodied most viscerally by Aaron's mother and when Christian comes to accept his own lifestyle limitations.
These two, very different, young men become friends, and in the process, affect each other's outlook which, in turn, sets up an inevitable clash between gay and Mormon cultures.That is the premise of "Latter Days", a 2003 film, written and directed by C.Jay Cox, himself a former Mormon missionary.
Even when I thought I could foresee something coming, I was surprised by how it actually came about.Not many movies make me laugh knowingly at real gay dialogue and then bring a tear to my eye when I feel the characters' pain.
Mary Kay Place, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock form the Sun) and Erik Palladino (ER) all do a fine job with minimal screen-time.The leads, which so many complain are not gay in real life, do a wonderful job portraying what Ernie says are `average guys' who are gay; in other words, not flamers or such.
They just didn't allow enough time for proper character development.Please I recommend everyone to formulate their own opinions but if you want a quality film that will actually resound with you, watch "Beautiful Thing", "Get Real" or "Shelter"...I cried to "Beautiful Thing" ha ha.
At least that is the message of this thoughtful and well made comedy-drama.The contemporary portrayal of gay characters in films tend to be either the too-good-to-be-true best buddies, found in films like THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING and AS GOOD AS IT GETS, or the simplistic, sex-obsessed hedonists in films like LOVE!
The two come together via one of the lamest of movie gimmicks: Christian hopes to win a $50 bet by seducing the amiable, yet deeply religious Aaron.The film is fairly predictable and relies on a few too many coincidences (though the term miracle is dropped a time or two).
The always wonderful Jacqueline Bisset as Christian's employer and mother figure provides the film with a degree of dignity, while Mary Kaye Place, as Aaron's distraught mother,is honest in a different direction as she reveals the pain of a parent who sees her son's homosexuality as both a personal failure and a social embarrassment.
I honestly thought that Independent Gay Film had moved past some of these things by the mid-90s but evidently they still lurk, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting movie goer who dares to have a brain.
It's takes a classic plot of opposites attracts, using the characters of Christian, a waiter with a passion for partying and men, and Aaron, a young Mormon missionary away from his family for the first time and struggling with his sexuality.
I hope that the next time I am so moved by a film I will not a couple of hours later feel that I have somehow been cheated as a gay man by straight men once again screwing up my emotions..
Other characters are either too good to be true (Jacqueline Bisset) or just flat-out unbelievable (the singer/songwriter roommate with the horrible voice).It's been pointed out that Mormons are depicted as barely less than Nazi-like monsters in this film, an easy, simplistic resort to make points.
And the excellent Erik Palladino is nearly unrecognizable as an AIDS sufferer who allows Christian some personal insight.LATTER DAYS can be added to the list of awful gay fantasies like BIG EDEN or LOVE!
While not a ground breaking gay romance like "Brokeback Mountain," "Latter Days" is an entertaining love story that is greatly enhanced by its talented boyish lead, Steve Sandvoss.
As the secretive restaurant owner, the still-beautiful Jacqueline Bisset makes a welcome appearance and provides a nurturing mother figure that contrasts with Aaron's intolerant unforgiving mother, who is played by Mary Kay Place.Whether or not the Mormon Church is as harsh as portrayed in the movie, the unyielding parents and church elders make ideal villains, especially for gay audiences who view religious extremism as the enemy of tolerance.
Although the film's visuals are too slick, and the sets are lit like a television episode, the flaws fade as the story develops and viewers fall in love with both Aaron and Sandvoss..
And I was in for a surprise: I liked it.The plot revolves around two exact opposites  insecure Mormon missionary Aaron Davis (newcomer Steve Sandvoss) and gay party animal Christian Markelli (Wes Ramsey, ABC's "Guiding Light" and the failed sitcom "Luis") - who meet after Aaron moves into the apartment across from Christian's with some other missionaries.
Aaron, who has finally disclosed his feelings and longing for Christian, is shipped back to his BEYOND disapproving family and Christian begins a search for the one who got away that captured his heart...Like I said, I had never heard of this film and if I didn't end up getting free passes for this, I probably wouldn't have seen it.
Besides Sandvoss and Ramsey (whom I believe both have big futures before them), the cast includes Jacqueline Bisset as a sympathetic restaurant owner, Mary Kay Place as Aaron's once loving, now bitter and unforgiving mother (though at times, mainly because of the way she looked, I was reminded of Piper Laurie's over the top Oscar nominated performance from Carrie), Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Aaron's homophobic missionary partner, Amber Benson as one of Christian's friends, and Erik Palladino as a dying AIDS victim that Christian befriends.The music is the other best thing about it.
i don't know how this movie has a rating of over seven on IMDb movies much better than this like dream boy have a rating of 6.1i had high hopes from this movie but the quality of this movie, the low standard of acting was shocking , given the overall rating.the nudity in this movie doesn't help either as it all looks so fake there are no emotions and i could not feel anything for the characters please do not go by the overall rating of this movie and give it a pass there are much better movies to be watched.
The premise of Latter Days would seem like something interesting to watch, but sadly the film turns out to be poorly written, poorly made, and performed by the actors at only a level that a low-quality movie will allow.
A pretty good script, great acting from two unknown leads who will become household names, and although I'm a fan of Ms Bisset, I thought she put in the worst performance of her career (in one particular scene at least).This film could have been great, but it falls short.
There is something authentic, even if the movie began simply and I really wasn't excepted this.I am from Switzerland, and I could tell you that's things aren't really different here, I still think that's life is no about judging other for what they are, so if you are Mormon that's good, if you are Gay that's good.
He doesn't have a huge role, but I was delighted to see Rob McElhenney as a young Mormon missionary--he's one of the dissolute crew from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn't get much of a chance to break out of the strictures of his character, and I find it very, very difficult to believe that a homophobic Mormon missionary would actually be so free and easy about using words like "homo" and "fag." That would have to be pretty unusual.The best part of the movie is definitely Steve Sandvoss, not just because he does a good job of embodying the role of a basically innocent missionary struggling through the situations in which he finds himself, but also because Sandvoss is so insanely, insanely beautiful.A lot of the action and situations seem rather forced dramatically, but this film is definitely worth watching.
Aaron's screen time is nil toward the end of the movie, so we are left wondering if the love interest is mutual between Christian and Aaron.On the surface, the movie seems to perpetuate the stereotypes that Mormons and homosexuals are out to recruit other people to their cause.
In the end, Christian, the shallow gay guy, gives meaning to his life, and Aaron, the Mormon, takes a more liberal view of the world.
Forget the sexual orientation of the main characters and just watch the film; you will see a really good love story between two completely believable characters.
Cox WAS a Mormon missionary and he WAS gay and he DID come out, much like Aaron does in the film.
And a few scenes needed trimming (but the great acting holds your attention during those long parts).This movie has quickly moved up on my Top Ten Best Gay Flicks list and I'm sure you won't find it hard to add it there either.
It had mixed reactions from the critics when it was released in 2003/4 and barely broke even on the production costs, yet it garnered many awards from various lesbian and gay film festivals from all over the world.Briefly Latter Days is the love story of Aaron Davis, played by Steve Sandvoss and Christian Markelli acted by Wes Ramsey who come from different sides of the religious tracks, so much so that it might as well be different worlds.
However, when the film was sent to me by my oldest and best (gay) friend, I decided to watch it anyway.My own parents never ever broached the subject of homosexuality and were spared a large part of my "secret life" as I moved out at 17, but to this day I am utterly sure that they would never EVER have behaved so deplorably and "unchristianly" as poor Aaron's parents do when he is found out and sent home.
In the beginning of the film leaving Pocatello (just some doodah pudknocker from Pocatello - Judy Garland was born in a trunk in the Princess Theatre in Pocatello, at least in "A Star Is Born") he is his mom's "baby" - when he comes back she can not even bring herself to look at him, much less touch him or offer him comfort in any way (a rather ungrateful role for the lovely Mary Kay Place).In fact, in this film there is only one single gracious character role and it has been put into the ever capable and beautiful hands of Jacqueline Bisset who also gets to deliver most of the best punch lines in that impeccable British accent of hers.If the ordeal, which Aaron is being put through after having been ex-communicated, is anywhere near-realistic (and I deduct as much from some of the comments), I am appalled and horrified.I am sorry, but judging by some of these comments, the Mormon religion seems to be incredibly bigoted and left back in another century - do they still burn witches at the stake in Utah ??
The story of a gay party boy romancing a Mormon missionary could easily have degenerated into the worst kind of B-movie melodrama.
True life and True love are not easy and this great film shows all the warts of characters along with their good natures with excellent performances for all the actors.
C. Jay Cox (who also wrote Sweet Home Alabama) brings us a touching, heartwarming love story about Aaron, a closeted Mormon missionary, played by the handsome and endearing Steve Sandvoss, who falls for a West Hollywood, pretty boy, Christian, Wes Ramsey, while spreading the gospel in and around 'Sodom and Gommorah', Los Angeles.
It's too bad that there wasn't a theatrical as well as a director's cut of this film as this could've made a great mainstream movie and should be seen by everyone.Unfortunately, it never made it to most theaters most likely due to the fact of the nudity, gay sex, and a couple of surreal sexual scenes.
A perfect date movie!The film also features some great supporting roles with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (kid from Third Rock from the Sun) as one of his missionary brethren, Jacqueline Bisset, owner of 'Lila's', a restaurant where Christian and his friends work and hang out, Mary Kay Place, Aaron's mother, and Rebekah Jordan, who gives a terrific performance as Christian's best friend and confident.
In the first few minutes of the film when Elder Aaron Davis -- the young Mormon on the mission, superbly played by newcomer Steve Sandvoss -- is in a cab on his way to his new home there is a person with a placard by the side of the road with the inscription `Entering Hell.'  It may be true.It turns out that Elder Davis' next door neighbor is a very attractive gay party animal named Christian.
How's that for irony?Christian works as a waiter at one of those trendy LA bistros named `Lila's' -- owned by Lila Montagne -- the superb Jacqueline Bisset who has one of the best lines in the whole film; she is talking to Aaron when she says `Your church doesn't like alcohol or homosexuals.
Can't imagine Heaven without both.'After having many doors slammed in their faces Elder Davis and his mission partner, Elder Paul Ryder -- brilliantly acted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock from the Sun) -- encounter Lila who needs a sympathetic ear.As Lila says at one point `I don't believe in coincidence.'Eric Palladino (ER) is unrecognizable as an AIDS patient -- you will not believe it is he.Through a series of twists of fate Christian discovers that Aaron is the man he has been waiting for and goes to great lengths to ensure that they will be together.Mary Kay Place is the Mother From Hell to Aaron -- she is at her most unsympathetic best.There are many plot twists and turns and quite a bit of suspense when you are uncertain of the fate of Aaron.But the film does end on a satisfying note.I saw this film with a friend that just happens to be a gay Mormon -- and while the Mormon Church no longer excommunicates people for their sexual orientation -- most of the rest of the situation was pretty much true to life.This is an excellent film with superb music that helps to develop the story and move the plot to a final conclusion.You really should see it..
The actors portraying Christian and Aaron are so great and spot on with their performances, they really made me feel like they truly loved one another.
I just purchased it and watched it and found it to be a very emotional movie.I used to be a Mormon for 20 years and then was ex-communicated for being gay.
All you have to do is like a good, old-fashioned (or maybe not) love story.I'm waiting for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it again (and again)..
While this movie may not be the next best gay film I absolutely loved it.
Whether you've ever been mormon or not; whether you're gay or straight; I think everyone will find something of value in this movie..