Humor of 'The R.M.' lost on the non-LDS
By CRAIG OUTHIER
Get Out
March 20, 2003

Sure, the title is cryptic, but the plotting in The R.M. is a cinch. Its about a returning LDS missionary who comes home expecting a little TLC, but gets stiffed by the enrollment board at BYU and ends up serving as his ward's EQP. If he remembers to CTR, someday he could be a GA.

What, youre still confused? You must not be Mormon (read: a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and if thats the case, the movie itself will leave you just as puzzled. Otherwise, The R.M. (written, directed and produced by the same filmmaking team behind the 2002 Mormon niche hit The Singles Ward) will inspire a few knowing laughs, a few exasperated groans and, in the more fastidious among you, a deep yearning for an LDS-themed movie thats actually worth sitting through.

Succinctly put, the movie is a Job- esque comic fable about the difficulties both romantic and professional faced by returning Mormon missionaries (known as RMs) as they make the transition back into society. Just ask poor Jared Phelps, played by newcomer Kirby Heyborne, who looks a little like a young Gene Wilder with hair-straightening treatments. Not only does Jared the star proselytizer step off the airplane to an empty terminal after an adventure- free tour of duty in exotic Wyoming, no less no one remembered to tell him that his parents moved (d'oh!) or that his girlfriend got engaged to another missionary (double d'oh!).

Now Jared has no job, no girlfriend, no educational prospects only his dignity and faith, which are all he might need to snare a tasty-but-down-to-earth Mormon princess (Britani Bateman) who has taken a shine to him.

Were not talking about the most sophisticated humor, here silly sight gags and John Hughes-style opportunistic sound effects, mostly. In one scene, we see one of Jareds 11 siblings read an issue of LDS Teen Beat. There are, however, some genuinely funny scenes, including a bogus TV commercial for a wedding Web site starring former Major League Baseball player Wally Joyner in a black Donny Osmond wig.

Writer/director Kurt Hale pokes gentle, inside-out fun at the Mormon propensity for food storage, large families, acronyms, etc.
In fact, The R.M. only becomes truly excruciating during the final 20 minutes, when pious, sinless Jared somehow gets tagged with a DUI rap, leading to one of the most insultingly stupid redemptive courtroom sequences ever filmed. LDS or no, theres just no way to tolerate BS such as that.

'The R.M.'

Starring: Kirby Heyborne, Will Swenson, Britani Bateman
Playing: Opens Friday throughout the Valley
Rating: PG (thematic elements)
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Grade:D+