The Singles Ward is the first feature film from HaleStorm Entertainment, and one of the first straight comedies in the new genre of “Mormon Cinema”.
The film is designed as a framework to throw out as many Mormon jokes as possible. Which it does, although the film also touches on some deeper, more serious issues near the end: the isolation single members may feel in a family-oriented Church, and the purpose and use of free agency.
Critical analysis of a comedy pretty much comes down to one issue: Is it funny? The answer for The Singles Ward is yes, albeit somewhat sporadically. The filmmakers appear to be working from the theory that if you pack in as many jokes as humanly possible into the film, the audience will still be laughing even if half of them don’t work.
And yes, probably half of the jokes don’t really work, but the volume is high enough that the movie avoids having a lot of ‘dead time’ — where the audience hears something that isn’t funny, but obviously was supposed to be funny and creates an uncomfortable silence, instead. The Singles Ward deals with this by simply going on to the next joke quickly (not unlike the technique used by stand-up comedians like the main character of the movie).
The issue of guest-stars is a little more problematic. The filmmakers throw in famous faces from Utah and LDS culture often without a specific joke in mind — apparently just so audience members can point to the screen and say, “Hey…it’s LAVELL EDWARDS!”
Some of these jokes are horribly dated and will be lost upon future audiences — viewers in 2010, for example, are not going to understand Steve Young’s cameo and “joke” about being a bachelor now that he’s been married with kids for many years now.
The ‘serious’ parts of the film are actually effective and bring up some important concepts to ponder — although the film doesn’t quite know how to reconcile both the ‘serious’ and ‘funny’ parts together. At one point we’re supposed to laugh at how some members overreact to jokes at church members’ expense in God’s Army and other films, but then later we’re supposed to sympathize with Cammie when she’s offended by someone else telling the same kind of jokes.
In the end, The Singles Ward’s biggest problem isn’t content or execution, but one of editing and focus. A good rewrite or two — taking out many of the lamer jokes or pointless cameos by famous Mormons, and tightening up the flow of the movie would have made it more effective. Still, some decent laughs and a relevant message makes The Singles Ward still count as a success in the end.
Final Grade: B-
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