The Best Two Years By Scott S. Anderson Halestorm Entertainment, 2003. Genre: Film
Reviewed by: D Michael Martindale

"Quality Fluff"

Richard Dutcher (why is it so hard to avoid mentioning his name when discussing an LDS film, even one he had nothing to do with?) didn't create the new genre of LDS film--he blew it away. His first two films, God's Army and Brigham City, established a nonexistent film genre and set the bar for quality right from the beginning. It's been all downhill ever since.

To date, as an LDS film critic, my list of quality LDS films has been very short: Brigham City is the best, followed by God's Army, and the barely noticed Out of Step a distant third. Charly was a borderline movie, and all the others (that I've seen so far) fall under that borderline of quality. I despaired of ever seeing another film that could be added to the quality side of that list until Zion Films released the next Dutcher movie.

But at the recent Association for Mormon Letters' fifth annual writers conference, I had an opportunity to view a pre-release screening of the film The Best Two Years. It's with no small sense of satisfaction that I'm able to add a fourth LDS film to the list of worthy additions to the genre.

Best Two Years falls squarely into third place, edging Out of Step into fourth. Dutcher still reigns supreme, but the list of worthy lords surrounding the king is finally growing after a long period of stagnation.

What makes Best Two Years a bronze medalist instead of silver or gold is the fact that it's pure fluff. The plot is anorexically slim; the climax as predictable as a Scooby-doo episode. But that doesn't harm the film, because that's all the film was ever intended to be. As fluff, it succeeds admirably. As some lightweight, pleasant entertainment for an LDS audience, it scores in all the required categories.

Best Two Years chronicles the day-to-day experiences of a district of LDS missionaries stationed in the Netherlands. We join them as the obligatory new greenie shows up, communicating in a language that none of the railroad station officials can identify. The other missionaries are familiar characters, including the one who has lost his zeal for the work, and maybe his testimony as well.

The screenplay gets the job done, the acting serves the screenplay well, and the technical results are of adequate quality. Nothing overly glowing here, but a competent effort that delivers.

The plot exists to support the laughs, which come at a regular frequency. It's not the slapstick bellylaughs of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (although some of the comedy does edge precariously close to over-the-top), but the sort of comedy that arises out of the characters and the situations they find themselves in. The serious moments are gentle and effective--and thankfully sparse, because, after all, this is fluff. No attempt was made to justify this lighthearted piece of entertainment with A Message so the filmmakers could be sure their efforts were Building the Kingdom.

And in the process, they did build the kingdom. They created a film that told a Mormon story with real (slightly exaggerated) Mormon characters full of the sort of foibles one would expect from human beings, even human beings engaged in the Lord's work. But never is the dignity of the work itself compromised. It's just the sort of thing the art of the Kingdom needs right now to crawl its way out of the club-over-the-head approach to uplifting entertainment.

Scott Anderson, the writer/director, adapted this film from a stage play he'd written some time ago. Perhaps that seasoned heritage is why the film works so well. Halestorm is the company Anderson chose to distribute the film. It's the first film Halestorm will be distributing that it didn't produce itself.

This film may be the film that puts Halestorm on the map as a respectable contender in the LDS film industry. Until now, all they've distributed are their own forgettable comedies, which made many Mormons laugh for a moment, but are poorly designed to withstand the judgment of time. Best Two Years has the quality to withstand. If its foundation isn't quite rock, at least it's concrete, and will weather the storm of criticism much better than the sandy foundations of Singles Ward and The R.M. The irony is not lost on me that the film that could make Halestorm respectable is a film they didn't produce.

But I give them credit for recognizing a film that is quality when it came their way. Best Two Years fits right into their modus operandi--lighthearted comedic fluff--but does so at a level of quality that is to be applauded--and seen.

D. Michael Martindale