The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith
My wife’s family are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a niece that recently came back from an 18-month mission. Every week, she would send updates of what she was doing and how she was experiencing her faith in a new way; even if I don’t share her experiences with faith and religion, I find them inspiring, nonetheless. That doesn’t mean I found myself particularly taken by this faith-based effort, adapted by writer-director Mitch Davis from the autobiography of John Groberg, whose life he has now chronicled twice. I have never seen the first film, and though I will now, I’m not especially anxious to do so.
Davis’s film begins with Groberg, played once again by Christopher Gorham, recounting his first experience of going to Tonga as a missionary in the 1950s as a young man, meeting his wife, Jean, and having a family. The faith he personally found on that mission- both in himself, and in the people he was surrounded with- is something that stayed with him when he returned to the United States after three years. In 1965, after a life with Jean, and about to have his fifth child, John is, once again, called to serve a mission in Tonga, this time heading the efforts there, and Jean and his family join him. He finds things very different from his first trip, with a thriving LDS community, but adversity remains, and will test his own faith, especially as his children are involved.
As this is now the second time Davis has told a story on Groberg’s life, it’s clear that his story means something to the director. The problem is, that meaning does not extend to me as a viewer, and it’s made difficult when the film lacks the dramatic weight this does, along with the creative means to tell this story. The way Davis uses cinematography and music are very generic (the music lands every emotional beat with the subtlety of a Bible-thumping sermon), and the film’s low budget is evident during sequences like a hurricane at the beginning, and John, Jean and three of their kids being caught on rocky waters going to a neighboring island, which risks them losing one of their children. Part of why this film didn’t sit well with me is that, we should be inspired by how John and his family never lose their faith through the tests they are given, but in the back of my mind, I cannot help but think that, Groberg knew the risks this particular mission could have when it came to his family- and he is warned about them by the church Elders when they arrive- and he chose to stay anyway, because, faith. Even though this is based on a true story, the drama Groberg goes through still feels manufactured; one should never feel that way sitting through a movie like this.
The other part of why “Fire of Faith” doesn’t work for me is because, on the side of Groberg’s story, a far more interesting story about faith exists in plain sight that I would have much rather been watching unfold. Parallel to Groberg’s story is the story of Sione (Ben Baker), a Methodist minister on the island who has struggled to keep his church thriving as more people have turned to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; when we meet him, a young couple has told him they are leaving his church to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sione is stung by this betrayal, and, when his son, Toutai (Alex Tarrant), not only helps this couple leave the village, but himself converts, that betrayal becomes bitterness that consumes him, and results in a further broken family. This story of a family divided by different faiths, and the struggle to find compassion, love and understanding through hubris and religious arrogance, is a story worth exploring deeper. If only the white people encroaching on it would get out of the way.
