Released in 2002, Out of Step came out at the tail end of the first wave of modern LDS films, which started with God’s Army.
It is the first film for director Ryan Little — who has since gone on to do bigger and better things (Saints and Soldiers, Forever Strong). Out of Step is a decent starter film for a director with talent, although not among the best films the LDS genre has to offer.
Jenny is an 18-year-old college freshman who leaves the comfortable surroundings of Utah for dance school in New York. Her college experience hits a snag almost immediately as she fails to get the dance scholarship she was depending on. Now, she has to prepare diligently for her next scholarship tryout the following spring or else her college career may be over before it starts.
In addition to school pressure, Jenny encounters spiritual pressure from her agnostic philosophy teacher who quizzes her skeptically about her LDS beliefs. And she finds a fair amount of romantic pressure, too, between a Mormon guy who doesn’t really seem like boyfriend material, and another guy who is definitely boyfriend material but not a Church member.
Out of Step has a little bit of a casting problem right from the start. Jenny is played by newcomer Alison Akin Clark — a married RM with two kids in real life — who looks about 7-8 years too old (at least) to be playing an 18-year-old freshman. (It’s even worse for co-star Jeremy Elliot from Charly — 30 (!) when this movie was filmed — who is also supposed to be playing a young college student.)
She’s not really much of a dancer, either — not vital to the movie, but when several scenes make a point of talking about how “amazing” and “dynamic” Jenny is as a dancer, it would be nice for the movie to give us a visual sense that this is true, to help suspend disbelief if nothing else. (As it is, you can tell during the dance scenes the camera is deliberately focusing on the other, more polished supporting dancers instead of on the lead.)
While not related to casting, Out of Step is also a little hamstrung by the fact that the lead character is…well, a dim bulb. Jenny the character just isn’t very bright — she’s hopelessly naive and doesn’t seem like she’s had a deep thought about any topic in her life.
She meets a member guy named Paul who’s nice, but a little weird. She hangs around with him a lot as a friend, oblivious to the fact that he might have a more serious relationship in mind. (Hint to Jenny: guys do not normally agree to spend the entire semester filming a documentary about you, not to mention drive a long way to come visit you over Christmas if you’re “just a friend”)
She also meets David, who’s handsome and talented, but not a Church member. Does that matter, though, if they’re in love? (Paul, naturally, seems to think it should. Hint to Jenny: if Paul asks you to a church activity, it’s generally considered bad form to show up with another guy, especially without letting him know beforehand.)
As you might expect, Jenny’s parents like Paul The Church Member, and are ambivalent about David The Non-Member, although he’s nice and treats Jenny well. (Jenny, in characteristically dim-witted fashion, tells her parents that she and David are “serious”, but “It’s not like we’re going to get married or anything”. Um…okay. So, what does that mean, exactly? Where do you suppose your relationship is going, then?)
The next semester, after Jenny and David have gotten even *more* serious to the extent she starts skipping classes, she starts to wonder about their future. Would she ever consider marrying a non-member? Is David even interested in marriage and kids anyway? (Remember, neither of them are 20 yet.)
“Why would God allow me to have such deep feelings for a non-member” she wonders aloud to a friend, in what is a ridiculously stupid question even for her.
(Hint to Jenny: “Why would God *allow* you?” Since you were the one that chased David down on the street, and asked him out in the first place, and kept the relationship going when he was initially hesitant and ambivalent, it’s pretty silly to turn around and blame God for your predicament now, isn’t it?)
Out of Step does get points for allowing David to be a genuinely good guy who treats Jenny well and doesn’t try to take advantage of her. He doesn’t turn out to be a drug addict or end up cheating on her with another girl in the end — something overly simplistic just to show that, hey, *of course* she shouldn’t have been dating someone from “Babylon” who’s not a Church member to begin with.
David is not particularly interested in her religion (not that she ever talks to him about it much) or in being a father, but seems to be a good and mature guy in all other aspects. (He even appears to stop drinking after they’re together). It is to the film’s credit that the resolution to Jenny’s relationship problem is not as simple as it could have been.
Out of Step hints at spiritual issues other than just whether to date non-members, but doesn’t explore them in any depth. Jenny seems to be a righteous member, but her faith is pretty shallow. When her philosophy teacher quizzes her on her belief in God, her response is fairly weak, and she more or less admits that her faith comes from her parents.
Given this setup, the elements are there for a more deeper spiritual evaluation of Jenny’s faith — a closer look at what she believes and why — but that’s not really on the movie’s agenda. Both the philosophy teacher and Jenny’s friend, an evangelical Christian who thinks Mormons are a ‘cult’, had a lot of unused potential for discussions about God and spirituality. A missed opportunity.
Out of Step is a decent movie, albeit hampered by a lead character that’s hard not to mock most of the time. Not a bad movie by any means, but probably non-essential for anyone other than LDS movie completists at this stage. Check out Ryan Little’s later films, instead.
Final Grade: B-
Other Notes and Comments:
1. Rachel Emmers (States of Grace, The Errand of Angels) has a brief, non-speaking cameo as one of the local ward members. If it were me, I would have swapped her into the lead role as Jenny instead.
2. Would a philosophy teacher really ask students to stand in front of the class and “prove” in 60 seconds that God exists? What provable, real-life object could that question possibly be valid for, anyway? “Prove in 60 seconds that penguins exist.” “Prove in 60 seconds that George Washington existed.” Real life philosophy teachers have more effective teaching methods than that, don’t they?
3. There’s a strange scene with no follow-up where Paul finds David at Jenny’s apartment and punches him out, for absolutely no reason that I can figure. (Hint to Paul: it’s generally considered bad form to hit people in the face for no reason other than your own romantic frustrations. Jenny has the right to go out with someone other than you if she wants to. How come you’re not asking out Rachel Emmers’ character?)
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