The Other Side Of Heaven

By PETER CALDER

(Herald rating: * )

The best that might be said of this sanctimonious piece of racist drivel is that a few local actors made some money out of it. It's not clear whether the film was funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), but the production company describes itself as "dedicated to serving the LDS entertainment market" and it's hard to imagine anyone other than a true believer getting anything out of it.

The film, set in the 50s on the Tongan island of Niuatoputapu but shot on the Cooks' main island of Rarotonga and in Auckland, adapts the memoirs of Mormon missionary John Groberg (Gorham). In a smug, saccharine style which makes Disney look like Tarantino, it rehearses notions of the ennobling power of the gospels on heathen savages which are almost surrealistically patronising and, one suspects, profoundly offensive to Tongans. (An end credit-sequence concentrates on the Tongan characters who later "made it" to America.)

We can tell how simple-minded Groberg is since he unburdens himself in voiceover in long letters home to his future wife, Jean (Hathaway), who spends the movie in flowing white dresses walking through fields of flowers like a model in a shampoo ad.

Local audiences might enjoy spotting sequences shot in the town hall and Western Springs. But it is unlikely to appeal to anyone except the faithful who think the Pacific was the devil's playground until those missionaries in ties arrived.

Cast: Christopher Gorham, Anne Hathaway, Joe Folau, Miriama Smith, Nathaniel Lees

Director: Mitch Davis

Running time: 103m

Rating: PG

Screening: Village Newmarket and Manukau