I haven't seen this movie yet but I've found an interesting review from Mormon Times here:
http://www.mormontimes.com/arts_entertainment/movies/?id=5973
================================ (This review contains spoilers) ================================
'One Man's Treasure' absorbing flick By Sharon Haddock - Mormon Times Monday, Jan. 26, 2009
"One Man's Treasure" certainly isn't a perfect film. The acting is a little stiff, with lines delivered somewhat woodenly, and there are a few problems here and there in the logic behind the story development. But it's well-done enough that when the picture on the screen started to break up and digitize, people in the audience were quite unhappy.
Everyone wanted to know what happened and see the cast of missionaries find the treasure.
This Candlelight Media movie -- created and directed by John Lyde -- tells the tale of a half-dozen missionaries sent off to serve in a wasteland area.
One uptight elder about to finish his mission (played by Darin Southham) is majorly disappointed to be assigned "to babysit" three other missionaries in a place no one had been for years. His reaction to his plight is to tighten the reins and attempt to force his laid-back companion, played ably by Charan Prabhaker, to strictly obey the rules and meet a minute-to-minute regimen.
He has no time for nonsense, yet he joins in the game left to the elders by the last missionaries to serve in Bristol, Penn. (or American Fork/Salt Lake City judging by the signs for Tracy Aviary and the American Fork Library).
Sister missionaries played by Chantel Flanders and Shalaina Fotheringham and the companionship made up of Dustin Harding and Paul Hunt round out the cast which spends P-Day (a remarkably long and sunshiny P-Day) tracking down clues and finding the hidden treasure.
The story is entertaining and, again, absorbing enough that it's very disconcerting to be pulled off-track not only by a scratched disc but by the occasional cinematic mistake.
For instance, the town of Bristol, purportedly a desolate, trash-laden hamlet, suddenly has a beautiful tree-lined cemetery and gorgeous sunlit streets.
Missionaries dressed in clean white shirts and beige sweaters can somehow climb into dusty basements and under a stage to emerge without a smudge.
A tarantula crawls about in the dark and spooky Pennsylvania basement. Not sure tarantulas are native to Pennsylvania, but it's good video.
And the elders somehow expect there to be food on the open shelves in an apartment that's been abandoned for years.
A British missionary used to driving on the left side of the "motorway" drives without disaster on a Pennsylvania freeway.
Clues left here and there -- stuck in books, door jams and behind mailboxes -- are intact.
(It's amazing as well that elders who have only just arrived in a new area, know where the bakeries and cemeteries are and can get there on their bicycles in pretty good time.)
There's also time along the path to the treasure trove to, let's see, change a flat tire, help an old man move a bunch of cement blocks, fix an overheated car engine, set up 200 chairs in a cultural hall, find a select bakery, tour a bird aviary, change clothes, do some laundry and teach a discussion -- all in a single afternoon.
But if one can put aside these logistical problems, it's a pretty good movie.
It won't ever make the big time, but for a light comedy and a story with some spiritual value, it's all right.
http://www.mormontimes.com/arts_entertainment/movies/?id=5973
================================ (This review contains spoilers) ================================
'One Man's Treasure' absorbing flick By Sharon Haddock - Mormon Times Monday, Jan. 26, 2009
"One Man's Treasure" certainly isn't a perfect film. The acting is a little stiff, with lines delivered somewhat woodenly, and there are a few problems here and there in the logic behind the story development. But it's well-done enough that when the picture on the screen started to break up and digitize, people in the audience were quite unhappy.
Everyone wanted to know what happened and see the cast of missionaries find the treasure.
This Candlelight Media movie -- created and directed by John Lyde -- tells the tale of a half-dozen missionaries sent off to serve in a wasteland area.
One uptight elder about to finish his mission (played by Darin Southham) is majorly disappointed to be assigned "to babysit" three other missionaries in a place no one had been for years. His reaction to his plight is to tighten the reins and attempt to force his laid-back companion, played ably by Charan Prabhaker, to strictly obey the rules and meet a minute-to-minute regimen.
He has no time for nonsense, yet he joins in the game left to the elders by the last missionaries to serve in Bristol, Penn. (or American Fork/Salt Lake City judging by the signs for Tracy Aviary and the American Fork Library).
Sister missionaries played by Chantel Flanders and Shalaina Fotheringham and the companionship made up of Dustin Harding and Paul Hunt round out the cast which spends P-Day (a remarkably long and sunshiny P-Day) tracking down clues and finding the hidden treasure.
The story is entertaining and, again, absorbing enough that it's very disconcerting to be pulled off-track not only by a scratched disc but by the occasional cinematic mistake.
For instance, the town of Bristol, purportedly a desolate, trash-laden hamlet, suddenly has a beautiful tree-lined cemetery and gorgeous sunlit streets.
Missionaries dressed in clean white shirts and beige sweaters can somehow climb into dusty basements and under a stage to emerge without a smudge.
A tarantula crawls about in the dark and spooky Pennsylvania basement. Not sure tarantulas are native to Pennsylvania, but it's good video.
And the elders somehow expect there to be food on the open shelves in an apartment that's been abandoned for years.
A British missionary used to driving on the left side of the "motorway" drives without disaster on a Pennsylvania freeway.
Clues left here and there -- stuck in books, door jams and behind mailboxes -- are intact.
(It's amazing as well that elders who have only just arrived in a new area, know where the bakeries and cemeteries are and can get there on their bicycles in pretty good time.)
There's also time along the path to the treasure trove to, let's see, change a flat tire, help an old man move a bunch of cement blocks, fix an overheated car engine, set up 200 chairs in a cultural hall, find a select bakery, tour a bird aviary, change clothes, do some laundry and teach a discussion -- all in a single afternoon.
But if one can put aside these logistical problems, it's a pretty good movie.
It won't ever make the big time, but for a light comedy and a story with some spiritual value, it's all right.
