Latter Days
| Latter Days | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | C. Jay Cox |
| Written by | C. Jay Cox |
| Produced by | Funny Boy Films, Davis Entertainment Filmworks |
| Starring | Wes Ramsey Steve Sandvoss Rebekah Johnson Jacqueline Bisset Mary Kay Place Erik Palladino Amber Benson Joseph Gordon-Levitt Rob McElhenney Dave Power |
| Distributed by | TLA Releasing |
Release date | 2003 |
Running time | 107 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $819,939 |
Latter Days is a 2003 gay romantic drama set in Los Angeles. It follows the seduction of Aaron, a Mormon missionary, by Christian, an LA party animal who then finds himself falling in love with Aaron. C. Jay Cox, who also wrote the screenplay, directed "Latter Days". The film stars Steve Sandvoss as Aaron Davis, Wes Ramsey as Christian Markelli, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Elder Ryder, and Rebekah Johnson as Julie Taylor.
Latter Days premiered at the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on 10 July, 2003. It was rolled out across America over the next 12 months. The film was released in few other countries, and mostly at gay film festivals.[1] It was not well received by film critics, but was nonetheless popular with ordinary fans. In 2004, Latter Days was made into a novel, written by T. Fabris, and published by Alyson Publications.
Plot
Template:Spoiler Elder Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss) is a young Mormon missionary from Pocatello, Idaho, who is sent to Los Angeles with three other missionaries, to spread the Mormon faith. They move into a bungalow apartment that adjoins to the apartment of openly gay Christian Markelli (Wes Ramsey), an aspiring actor. In the meantime, he works as a waiter at Lila's, a trendy restaurant owned by Lila Montagne (Jacqueline Bisset). Fun-loving, party boy Christian is intrigued by his new, sober Mormon neighbors, and makes a bet with his cynical co-workers that he can seduce one of them for $50. It doesn't take long for Christian to realize that Aaron, the most inexperienced missionary, is a closeted homosexual.
After several encounters around the apartment complex, Aaron and Christian get to know each other. When Christian accidentally cuts himself on a piece of metal and faints from the sight of blood, it is Aaron who helps him indoors and cleans his wound. Christian seizes the opportunity to seduce Aaron and is at the point of success when the hesitant young Mormon becomes upset by Christian's standard patter that it "doesn't have to mean anything". Aaron angrily replies that Christian "equates sex with a handshake" and accusing him of being superficial and shallow, walks out. Worried that Aaron is right, Christian joins Project Angel Food to deliver meals to people with AIDS, through which he befriends Keith (Erik Palladino).
Some while later, Aaron's fellow missionary, Paul Ryder (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is involved in 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. Lost in the moment, they fail to notice the return of Aaron's roommates.
Christian returns to the missionaries' apartment the next day to explain the innocence of his relationship with Aaron, but is told that Aaron been sent home in disgrace. This leads to a confrontation with Elder Ryder, who is angry because Christian has corrupted a decent young man for no apparent purpose. Christian admits that he initially just wanted to win a bet, but "it's not about that" anymore.
Recognising Christian's genuine distress, Ryder relents enough to tell him that Aaron has a five-hour layover in Salt Lake City. Christian catches the next flight there and eventually finds Aaron standing in the snow outside the terminal. Christian confesses his love, and despite his profound misgivings, Aaron admits his own feelings of love. With all flights cancelled due to a snowstorm, Christian and Aaron are able to spend a loving and intimate night together. However, when Christian awakes in the morning he finds Aaron has gone. Sadly, he is forced to return to his former life in Los Angeles.
On arriving home in Idaho, Aaron is excommunicated by the church elders, including his own father, who is the Stake President. Rejected by his father (Jim Ortlieb) and scolded by his mother (Mary Kay Place), who tells him about the $50 bet, and overwhelmed by despair, Aaron tries to commit suicide. Fortunately, he is discovered in time, but is sent by his parents to a treatment facility to undergo aversion therapy to "cure" him of his homosexuality.
Christian is desperate to find Aaron and eventually locates his home address and phone number. When he phones he is devastated to be told by Aaron's mother 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 seeks out the family home in Idaho, where he tearfully returns Aaron's family heirloom watch to his mother. She recognizes that she may have been harsh in her judgments, but is too late to stop Christian before he drives off.
Late one night in the treatment facility Aaron is drawn to a music video playing on a television monitor. It is a song written by Christian's roommate, Julie, which describes her friend's anguish at losing Aaron.
The video spurs Aaron into returning to Los Angeles in search of Christian. Finding that Christian has given up his apartment and having nowhere else to go, Aaron makes his way to Lila's restaurant. By chance, he had met and befriended Lila while on missionary work when her partner was dying in hospital, but he did not realize that she owned the restaurant where Christian worked. Christian's joy and shock at seeing Aaron alive and their reconciliation brings the movie to a happy ending, and together with all Lila's friends, they celebrate thanksgiving and look forward to a happy future together.
Development and Production
Latter Days was written by C. Jay Cox. He had previously written Sweet Home Alabama, the success of which freed up Cox to write a more personal love story.[2] Both characters Christian and Aaron were based on Cox himself, who had been Mormon and served a mission before coming out as gay, and had wondered what the two halves of himself would have said to each other if they had ever met.[3]
Latter Days was filmed in 24 days on an estimated budget of $850,000.[4] All funding was acquired from private investors who wanted to see the film made. [5]
Cast
- Steve Sandvoss as Elder Aaron Davis: A young Mormon who, on his Mission, falls in love with Christian and must choose between his sexuality and his church. The producers auditioned quite a few people before casting Sandvoss, saying he "blew us away".[5]
- Wes Ramsey as Christian William Markelli: A LA party animal, aspiring to be an actor, Christian has his ideas of happiness and meaning of life challenged when he falls for a simple but kind-hearted Christian who has moved in next door. Ramsey said, on the DVD Special featurette, "The character of Christian was on so many levels, intriguing to me. I was just so excited and feel very blest to have the opportunity to tell that story through his eyes".[5]
- Rebekah Johnson (as Rebekah Jordan) as Julie Taylor: Christian's flat-mate, Julie tries to break out into the music world and on the way stop Christian from falling apart.
- Amber Benson as Traci Levine: Traci has moved from New York to LA to become an actress, but finds it difficult to make her mark, and works at Lila's to support herself. Traci does not like living in LA, but later admits she didn't like New York much either.
- Khary Payton as Andrew: Andrew is also an aspiring actor, but seems more interested in gossiping. Andrew is HIV positive and has been so for quite some time, but remains in good health.
- Jacqueline Bisset as Lila Montagne: Lila runs Lila's the restaurant where Christian, Traci, and Andrew. Her lover is terminally ill in hospital and she is forced to make the decision whether or not to keep him on life support. She still finds time to be sarcastically witty to all the other characters however. Bisset herself said, "I like humor, so I just, I really enjoyed doing all the cracks."[5]
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Elder Paul Ryder: A prickly, judgmental young Mormon assigned to be Aaron's missionary partner, Ryder is not enthusiastic about being in LA and even less so about living next door to a gay man. Gordon-Levitt had originally auditioned to play Aaron, but his aggressive attitude to the script but good sense of humor made the producers decide he was a perfect Ryder.[5]
- Rob McElhenney as Elder Harmon: Elder Harmon is the oldest of the Mormons and acts as their leader.
- Dave Power as Elder Gilford: Elder Gilford is Harmon's missionary partner.
- Erik Palladino as Keith Griffin: Keith is a gay man dying of AIDS and drowning in his own bitterness and despair until befriended by Christian. Cox said that Erik's performance was not how he originally envisioned it, but he could not now imagine a different person playing Keith. [5]
- Mary Kay Place as Sister Gladys Davis: Aaron's mother, who has difficulty accepting the fact that her son is gay.
- Jim Ortlieb as Elder Farron Davis: Aaron's father, who is also the Pocatello Stake President, and excommunicates Aaron from the church upon learning that he's gay.
- Linda Pine as Susan Davis: Susan is more accepting of her brother's homosexuality. In a deleted scene, she is the one who discovers Aaron's suicide attempt.
Reception
Critical
Latter Days premiered at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on 10 July, 2003, where the audience loved the film so much they gave it a standing ovation. When the cast finally came on stage, they received another standing ovation. A similar thing occurred at Outfest a week later.[5] The film also aired at Seattle and Washington film festivals, before before rolled out across America over the next 12 months. The film was released in few other countries, and mostly at gay film festivals.[6] It has, as of 2005, received 9 best film awards.[5]
However, the film was banned by a cinema chain in Utah, who claimed it was "not up to our artistic quality".[5] At the Box Office, Latter Day only made $553,570.[7] Critical reviews have also been mixed: one wrote, "Cox's screenplay, while occasionally lapsing into the sort of clichés endemic to so many gay-themed films, generally treats its unusual subject matter with dignity and complexity".[8] There have been very positive reviews as well, though, with one critic saying Latter Days was "the most important gay male movie of the past few years".[9] The average critical rating on Rottentomatoes.com is 42%: however, the average user rating is 75%.[10]
Awards
| Year | Festival | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Film Festival | Audience Award | Outstanding First Narrative Feature |
| 2003 | Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival | Audience Award | Best Feature |
| 2004 | Toronto Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival | Audience Award | Best Feature Film or Video |
Themes
C. Jay Cox has stated that the film is primarily about a love story between two characters.[11] There is also an exploration of religious attitudes towards homosexuality, and the dilemma of religious homosexuals, torn between who they are and what they believe. A non-fiction film with similar themes that has been contrasted with Latter Days is Trembling before G-d.[9]
Cox has also said that there is a massive irony, both in the film and in real life, that a religion so focused on the family and the importance of it are ripping families apart through its teaching on homosexuality.[11] A major theme of Latter Days is that there is an underlying spirituality in the world that goes beyond the rituals and dogmas of religion.[12] This can be particularly seen in the scene where, after a day of making phone calls, Christian finally traces Aaron, writes down his phone number, and then discovers he has already idly drawn it on the previous page.
Soundtrack
Eric Allaman scored the soundtrack to the film after shooting wrapped, and composed much of the score himself. A total of three songs were written for the film for Julie to sing by C. Jay Cox, "Another beautiful day", "More", and "Tuesday 3 AM". Allaman was very impressed with C. Jay Cox's musical ability, and both composed more songs as background music.[5]
Several scenes featuring the rapid passing of time, such as Christian's desperate search for Aaron at Salt Lake City Airport, were scored with techno style beats, and scenes with emotional content were given a more "ambient 'tronica feel".[5]
The official soundtrack was released on October 26, 2004. For contractual reasons, Rebekah Johnson did not appear on the soundtrack and her character's song were performed by Nita Whitaker instead.[13]
Novelization
In 2004, the Latter Days screenplay was adapted into a novel, written by T. Fabris, and published by Alyson Publications. The book was mainly faithful to the film, but added several extra scenes that explained confusing aspects of the film and gave more about the characters' backgrounds. For example, the reason Ryder tells Christian where to find Aaron is as a result of his own broken heart over a girl he fell in love with at his mission training. It also added dialogue that had been cut out of the film: finishing, for example Christian's cry of "That's the hand I use to..." in the film with "masturbate with".
References
- ^ List of release dates for every country from the IMDB. Retrieved October 5, 2006.
- ^ Szymanski, Mike, (February 03, 2004) 'Latter Days' Director Gets Personal, Movies at zap2it.com. Retrieved October 12, 2006.
- ^ Phillips, Rebecca, (February 12, 2004) 'A Topic Deeply Buried', Belief.net. Retrieved October 12, 2006.
- ^ Internet Movie Database. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Latter Days DVD behind-the-scenes featurette.
- ^ List of release dates for every country from the IMDb. Retrieved 5 October, 2006.
- ^ Box Office summary at Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
- ^ Thehollywoodreporter.com (February 09, 2004), Latter Days review. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
- ^ a b Braun, Liz (August 16, 2004), Love thy neighbour: Latter Days questions faith, Jam Showbiz. Retrieved December 16, 2006.
- ^ Latter Days at Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
- ^ a b Killermoviereviews.com (April 2, 2004), Interview with C. Jay Cox. Retrieved December 16, 2006.
- ^ Killermoviereviews.com (December 12, 2006), Latter Days review. Retrieved December 16, 2006.
- ^ Latter Days Soundtrack at Amazon.com. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
External links
