(2024, 90 min)
Country: New Zealand
Director: Paul Oremland
Studio: Ariztical Entertainment
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: "Mysterious Ways" tells the powerful and courageous story of two men who become torn between their faith, families and love for one another. Anglican priest Peter (Richard Short) and boyfriend Jason (Nick Afoa) want to get married. For Anglicans, this is not allowed - and homosexuality itself is still taboo in Samoan culture. Samoan-Kiwi Jason has to deal with his family's strict cultural beliefs while Peter clashes with the Anglican Church hierarchy. When news of their marriage plans make headlines, it scandalizes the devout local community and unleashes a media storm that pushes the couple's relationship to the limit. A searing critique of the church's attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community, "Mysterious Ways" is an impassioned and moving drama.
REVIEW:
Vicar Peter (Richard Short) runs a small Anglican parish in New Zealand and is in a happy relationship with his Samoan boyfriend Jason (Nick Afoa), a former convict who now runs the local youth club. During a radio appearance, Peter makes an impulsive proposal over the air waves to Jason and shares his desire for them to have a church wedding. The reaction proves to be more divided than Peter anticipates and the opposition to his same-sex relationship takes him by surprise. As they try to work through the issues the proposal causes, Jason’s non-binary nephew Billy (Joe Malu Folau) arrives in town to shake things up further.
‘Mysterious Ways’ is essentially a comment on how modern-day society can appear to be accepting of homosexuality, only to show its true colours when something crosses what it considers to be a line too far. The town that Peter and Jason live in is supportive, to an extent, of their inter-racial relationship and for the most part they are happy to let the two men live as they want. Peter was formally married to a woman, who is now deceased, and has a daughter, while Jason is making up for the sins of his past.
What the two men don’t consider, is that their very public decision to have a church wedding is going to ruffle up plenty of feathers. While the town is happy to support their relationship, they don’t believe that a same-sex relationship should be able to be recognised and celebrated within the church. That backlash takes its toll on Peter and Jason’s relationship, as they navigate the unchartered waters they find themselves in. That’s exacerbated further by the arrival of Billy, who is unapologetic about their identity and further pushes the boundaries of what the town considers to be acceptable.
While the subject matter at the heart of the film is compelling, the screenplay never really dives too deeply into it. We don’t really know much about Peter and how he came to be in a same-sex relationship after the death of his wife, and Jason is even more of an enigma. The two men don’t appear to be the best match and the viewer never really gets the opportunity to understand their relationship. Despite Jason growing up in a very closed-minded family, his out and proud nephew seems to have little difficulty being themselves.
The performances of the three leads – Richard Short, Nick Afoa and Joe Malu Folau – are all solid and they work well together as a trio. That’s what really carries the film when it fails to really get a handle on its subject matter. It’s not particularly an exploration of religion neither is it a commentary of inter-racial same-sex relationships. The film doesn’t really know what it wants to be and that identity crisis drags it down.
‘Mysterious Ways’ grabbed my attention but by the end I was struggling to stay with the story. A third act twist, that really didn’t make a whole lot of sense, takes the film in a random and unexpected direction and it doesn’t really work in the wider context of the film. Society pushing back against same-sex couples is a popular trope in gay cinema, and unfortunately ‘Mysterious Ways’ doesn’t add anything new to the conversation.
--Reviewed By Pip Ellwood-Hughes, Entertainment Focus (http://www.entertainment-focus.com/)
