Brigham City

Several days after seeing this movie, I'm still thinking about it. That's about the highest compliment I can pay to a film.

As in all great films, the power of _Brigham City_ lies beneath the surface. The whodunit plot is merely a prop for the exploration of issues that affect us all, especially those of us who claim some sort of religious faith. The age-old question of whether innocence and wisdom can coexist is asked, never answered, and in the end eclipsed by a more pertinent question: If redemption is available for those who have lost their innocence, is it also available for those who fail through lack of wisdom?

Sleepy little Utah town and Mormon enclave Brigham City questions its faith as it loses its innocence to a serial killer. An excellent mutlilayered one-man-band indie, "Brigham City" works well as a whodunit, even better as a human drama, and still better as a provocative examination of issues of faith in the presence of evil. A tad obvious, somewhat sanitized, and not without its plotholes, "BC" should be an entertaining and worthwhile watch for most mature adults into serious-minded drama irrespective of faith. (B)

For a gentile like myself, Brigham City is both a good murder mystery about a serial killer and a nice insight into a community where the Mormon culture predominates. The film is the creation of Richard Dutcher who wrote, directed, and starred in it.

Dutcher wears two hats in this film and something you're not likely to see in a gentile setting. He's both the bishop and spiritual leader of the town and the sheriff. Being that must be a unique experience, in most small town the function of the local cops is mainly breaking up bar fights and writing speeding tickets. As one of the tenets of the LDS church is non-imbibing of liquor that is something he might not have to deal with. Still Dutcher and his deputy Matthew Brown do have an influx of other kinds of people in the town engaged in the construction trade. The place is booming.

And so when a serial killer strikes the folks in Brigham City find it inconceivable that the perpetrator could be one of them. Eventually they have to explore the possibility.

When a young girl goes missing, Dutcher deputizes a bunch of people and they do a house to house search which in another setting somebody might complain about a little thing like the Constitution. He does uncover a wrongdoer, but not in the same vein of what he was looking for.

I did like the scenes very much of the everyday life in a Mormon community it gives some great insights. For instance Brown talks about saving money for various things including the mission trip his infant son will eventually make. Not something you would hear in another film.

Dutcher is an imaginative film maker and he's turned out a good one here that can be appreciated outside the state of Utah.

I live in Mapleton, UT where it was filmed, and am LDS. I enjoyed the movie. If you don't understand the Church's dogma then the end of the movie may not mean that much to you.

I enjoyed the suspense and liked the acting. You can say what you want about the religon and the politics but it's not much different then other places in the world. If you saw the movie Chocolat, you can see the same thing there.

The worst thing about going to a mystery movie, is to have the perpetrator revealed too quickly. Brigham City is able to keep its secrets well enough that while you are convinced you know who the guilty party is, you don't find out until the last few moments of the film.

The other engaging aspect of the movie is that it also wisely utilizes both the setting (a small Utah town) and the cultural and religious traditions of the mormon church. Mormons are a group that are often denigrated and little understood by most of American Society. Dutcher is able to successfully integrate Mormon traditions of worship and belief into the plot. While some may find this to be too blatant at times, I think he is able to successfully balance his desire to use this as a backdrop for his murder mystery.

As someone who lived in Utah for about two years, I thought Dutcher was very able to capture many aspects of contemporary Rural Utah/Mormon Culture that are quite unique....so if you would like to understand a little more about mormonism, without inviting the Mormon Missionaries into your home, I think this is a great way to do it, while being entertained at the same time, by a great WHODUNIT plot.