Despite the fervent beliefs of film purists who argue otherwise, cinema does not exist in a cultural vacuum. The world outside the movie theatre has an indelible effect on what is being shown inside it; audiences carry their worldview into each screening, and take their reactions to the movie out to the larger world.

2004 already has one storm brewing on this front -- Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, by all accounts a violent depiction of the story of Jesus Christ, will be released later this month, but it has already aroused charges of anti-Semitism and ethnophobia. (Review to follow in February...stay tuned!) But almost as a prelude to the brewing storm of Passion comes LATTER DAYS, a small, surprising romantic comedy that garnered national headlines when it was banned from theatres, sight unseen, in Salt Lake City. What could be so upsetting about a movie written and directed by C. Jay Cox, the screenwriter of non-threatening fluff like Sweet Home Alabama? Well, if you're in Salt Lake, you're standing in the cultural center of the Mormon world. And LATTER DAYS is about a Mormon missionary recognizing his homosexuality and falling into blissful love with another man. Add gunpowder, light fuse, and wait.

Like most films that have been boycotted by Christian fundamentalists -- Hail Mary, The Last Temptation of Christ -- few of the protesters actually bothered to see LATTER DAYS. (To be fair, the same could be said of gay and lesbian anti-cinema crusaders, who trashed Basic Instinct and Cruising before they were released. The fact that they were right about those films' homophobic ethos is irrelevant to their rush to judgment.) I'm fairly certain that if Mormons were to arrive en masse at a screening of Cox's very witty comedy, they might find its candid sexuality and tonally amoral script to be protest-worthy. Still, they'd be missing the point, as cinema boycotts often do -- for LATTER DAYS is simply a slight, engaging work about two people of very different worldviews finding a common ground. It is ultimately not only an ethical and moral tale, but also one that everyone -- Mormons and gays included -- could learn a little tolerance from.

With Reese Witherspoon at his disposal, Cox proved in Sweet Home Alabama that he could impeccably capture the awkwardness of love, the clumsy geekiness of that puppy-love period denoted by the goofy inability to stop smiling. LATTER DAYS wears Cox's charm like a butterfly in a net, letting it filter and spread across the first half of the film with a sunshine glow. Even as the days become latter (and darker), there's still a sense of modern whimsy about Cox's direction and screenplay, a feistiness that the viewer will find incredibly alluring. Indeed, it has the effect of making LATTER DAYS seem to be a better film than it actually is, for the story plotting has some guffaw-worthy turns in its middle section.

Cox also has a tendency to get cutesy...irritatingly so, at times. But in LATTER DAYS, two factors mitigate the saccharin. First is the medium of digital video, which both flattens and brightens the action, taking the sweetness out of moments that might otherwise have rocketed off the cliche meter. More impressive, though, is the cast, led by pitch-perfect newcomers Steve Sandvoss and Wesley A. Ramsey and an ensemble that includes Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt), Mary Kay Place (Being John Malkovich), Erik Palladino (E.R.), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock From The Sun). Simply put, gay independent cinema doesn't get acting of this quality very often, and it is a sublime treat to watch these talented performers elevate their good-but-not-great material to unexpected heights.

A beautiful, oversexed club boy, Christian (Ramsay), takes a bet from his friends that he can bed one of the four young Mormon missionaries who have just moved into his apartment complex. He sets his sights on Aaron (Sandvoss), a closeted but deeply devout man who is intelligent enough to figure out what's going on. But the attraction between them is more than either of them bargained for, and when they are found out, Aaron is sent home to Idaho by the Church, forcing him into deep spiritual shame. Christian, for his part, finds Aaron impossible to forget, and his attempts to grow up are most clearly defined when he begins delivering food to Keith (Palladino), a smart-tongued man living with HIV.

Will the two lovebirds get together? Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, I'll let you keep guessing. One of the charming things about LATTER DAYS, however, is that even as it subscribes to the conventions of modern romantic comedy, it never compromises its characters' truths. As Aaron's Mormon mother, Gladys, Mary Kay Place eventually realizes the love her son may have felt...and in other films, such a realization might have softened her stance. Cox has the good sense to realize (and respect) Mormon belief, and refuses to allow Gladys' faith to be fairweather in any way. She turns an understanding but ultimately cold shoulder to any positive idea of homosexuality...exactly the way this character would in real life.

Sandvoss and Ramsey are without question the most charming gay pairing in recent memory, a pair of flawed but ultimately loveable losers whose incompatibility requires a deeper effort to understand other human beings. Charming, handsome, and clearly enjoying the scenes as they play them, the two actors are refreshing in their refusal to dumb down for the cameras. (Cox's screenplay, in fact, is flatter than they are, and more than once did I wish the two actors had better dialogue to play.) Other standouts include Bisset as a wise and generous restaurant proprietor, and Palladino, who takes what could have been a mirthless stereotype and instead finds inspiring twists and turns.

LATTER DAYS is not brilliant. It is not revolutionary either, and despite the best efforts of its protesters, it is not even that controversial. Looking past the world outside Cox's film and the hypersensitivity of American cultural politics at this moment, what LATTER DAYS truly is is a witty, uneven comedy clearly a cut above most offerings in this very familiar genre. See it with someone you love, and make sure that person is an open-minded Mormon or a religiously tolerant homo. Who knows? The discussion over coffee afterwards might be the best part.

-- Gabriel Shanks