Mysterious Ways
Paul Oremland’s sincere romantic drama from New Zealand addresses religion, gender fluidity and homosexuality.
Image courtesy of Peccadillo Pictures
This film from New Zealand marks the second time in recent months that Peccadillo Pictures have distributed in the UK a gay drama in which religion plays a prominent role. In All Our Fears the setting was Poland and the central character a figure taken from real life, Daniel Rycharski, a gay activist who is also a staunch Catholic. Now in Paul Oremland’s film Mysterious Ways we have as the central figure a gay Anglican vicar named Peter Simmons (Richard Short) who has a strong relationship with a Samoan, Jason Ioane (Nick Afoa). Their bond is not a secret one because Peter passionately believes that the Church needs to move with the times and in furtherance of that belief he has erected a billboard outside his own church. It quotes the biblical text that links faith, hope and love and declares love to be the greatest of these three and it does so carrying a picture of two men. Indeed, Peter is so openly liberal that he has a regular slot on local radio talking to callers and referring to his own relationship with Jason. One such conversation leads to him actually proposing on air despite the fact that for a clergyman a wedding in church would not be acceptable and even a blessing controversial.
Mysterious Ways is a portrait of how changing times may allow for a gay vicar to go public but will still mean that a figure like Peter’s bishop (Michael Hurst) while not confronting him in the most challenging way will nevertheless want him to tone things down. When the engagement of Peter and Jason hits the headlines, the press contribute to the pressure. They pick up on the fact that Jason, now a rugby coach, is a reformed criminal and they also make misleading comments about Peter's late wife and the termination of their marriage. Later, and not coincidentally, threats are made to withhold funding from the youth club run by Peter’s church. Under this pressure Peter is ready to abandon their plan to marry on church premises but yields without having first discussed the issue with Jason and this leads to a rift between the two men.
Rather like All Our Fears, this is not a film that confronts those who hold the view that to be both gay and religious is illogical if not impossible. However, Mysterious Ways does give a convincing view of uneasy compromises over sexuality within the Church and shows how Peter’s congregation includes those who are supportive but also those who quote biblical texts to justify homophobia. That it covers such issues makes this a worthwhile film and both Short and Afoa make a credible, sympathetic couple but there is in the dialogue and plotting a sense of material being tailored to the message that the film wants to deliver. The wider picture of the lives of the central characters is somewhat short-changed. We do meet Peter's daughter Kate (Becky McEwan) who approves of Peter having taken up with Jason after her mother's death but this past history is as scantily detailed as Jason's background story (we see Peter making prison visits and can assume that he met Jason in that way).
There is, however, a third figure who has been given a prominent role in the story and that is Jason's nephew Billy (Joe Malu Folau). He comes to support his uncle and Peter in their marriage plans and is introduced as a fa’afaline, one of those people who in Samoa are seen as being a third gender. The fact that a tradition of this kind exists provides an intriguing contrast with gender fluidity being in the western world so very much a contemporary issue. But rather than examine this from that angle the film uses Billy in a way which may respect him but which adds a dimension to the film that renders it a religious tale of a kind that even some believers might find hard to take.
Ultimately, then, Mysterious Ways comes across as something of an oddity, a rather confined drama made with sincerity, a work that is different but not always in a way that its audience will appreciate. A mixed bag one could say but certainly not without interest, always well-intentioned and at heart a plea for the Church to accept that the Christian God being a god of love would want all true love to be recognised.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Richard Short, Nick Afoa, Joe Malu Folau, Becky McEwan, Maureen Fepuleai, Elisabeth Easther, Michael Hurst, Vincent Andrew-Scammell, Zac O’Meagher, Te Radar, Logan Cole, Reina Va’ai.
Dir Paul Oremland, Pro Ngaire Fuata, Screenplay Dianna Fuemana, Harry McNaughton and Paul Oremland, Ph Grant McKinnon, Pro Des Shayne Radford, Ed Peter Roberts, Music David Long, Costumes Elizabeth (Liz) Laupepa and Jasper Powell.
Vada Productions/Iridescent Films/Sun Pix-Peccadillo Pictures.
90 mins. New Zealand. 2023. US Rel: 30 April 2024. UK Rel: 22 July 2024. No Cert.
