Got to be the best LDS movie ever made.

I thought it was the best LDS movie to date. I thought "Singles' Ward" was pretty lame. I only laughed at two of the jokes in the entire movie. I go to a singles' ward and the movie didn't seem to match the atmosphere of my ward. Then again, I don't live in Utah, so it might be different there. I thought "God's Army" was too melodramatic and unrealistic. I'm not saying those things couldn't happen on someone's mission. However, ALL of that happenned in one transfer in one district? I find that very hard to believe. "Charly" was not bad, but it suffered from having a climax and resolution halfway through the movie before having another climax and resolution at the end. That caused it to drag a little. "The Other Side of Heaven" was very good, although it didn't accurately reflect most missions. I know it was a true story, but it's not even close to what missions are like today.

Anyway, I felt that "The Best Two Years" did by far the best job of accurately depicting what a mission is really like. I could relate to just about everything in the movie because a lot of it was similar to my mission. I particularly thought they did a good job in accurately depicting real missionaries. The District Leader was a lot like a lot of my DL's--persistent about obedience, but not over the top. There were definitely missionaries like the DL's aspiring companion. I can think of at least a dozen missionaries that were exactly like that. There were also missionaries like the disobedient trainer. I can think of at least a dozen missionaries like that, including some that turned it around at the end of their missions. The only character I thought was a little too over the top was the greenie. He seemed just a litte TOO eager to do the work. There were missionaries that were really excited to be sure, but I didn't know anyone that was as over the top as the greenie.

The movie also did a great job in accurately depicting what missionary life is really like. Instead of being as dramatic (and frankly unrealistic) as "God's Army" or "The Other Side of Heaven," "The Best Two Years" focused on a lot of the daily missionary life. There was plenty of making fun of each other and roughhousing in missionary appartments in my mission. Also, there were plenty of missionaries that focused a little too much on their girlfriends and were crushed by the inevitable "Dear John" letter. The movie also was realistic in depicting how an investigator could act, how a discussion could go, the awkwardness of a language barrier, the general quirks of missionary life, etc. Just about everything, with the exception of the greenie being a little too over the top, was realistic. There were also plenty of hilarious moments; my personal favorite is the scene with the pictures of the one missionaries girlfriends when they think the AP's are coming over. That's got to be the funniest scene in any LDS movie. This movie did a great job balancing the comedy and the drama.

All in all, I would highly reccommend this if you are LDS, and especially if you're a return missionary. Even if you're not, it might be worth seeing because, unlike "Singles' Ward" you could probably still get a lot of the jokes. It's surprisingly well done. I wasn't going to see it because the trailers had embarrassing cliches like "You're going to learn it's not about the numbers." However, my aunt forced me to see it when I was in Utah, and I'm glad she did. It's really, really, good.