**1/2

Written and directed by C. Jay Cox

Starring Wes Ramsey, Steve Sandvoss, Mary Kay Place

In Latter Days, out-and-proud writer and first-time director C. Jay Cox (who penned Sweet Home Alabama) has created an entertaining but seriously uneven gay love story. His script (not autobiographical, but most likely based on personal experience) is about a hedonistic WeHo pretty-boy Christian (former soap actor Wes Ramsey), who finds himself re-examining his shallow ways when a sexy (would there have been a movie if he weren’t?) 19-year-old Mormon closet-case named Aaron (sweetly appealing newcomer Steve Sandvoss) moves with some missionary buddies into his apartment complex. In a moment of typical cockiness, Christian agrees to a bet made by his fellow waiters at the restaurant where he works: He’ll seduce Aaron and furnish the lad’s “sacred boxers” as proof of his hit-and-run encounter.

When the moment finally arrives, Christian coos, “It doesn’t have to mean anything” – his standard line of seduction, since, as the saying goes, “a dick has no conscience.” But Aaron stops him in his tracks: He does want their lovemaking to mean something, and if it doesn’t, he has no plans to throw away everything that has meaning to him (i.e., his religion and his close relationship with his mom – the latter is evoked in a rare and most effective dramatic turn by the wonderful Mary Kay Place).

In an unconvincing attempt to prove he has substance, Chris starts delivering for Project Angel Food (where he meets a stereotypically bitter PWA, superbly played by ER’s Erik Palladino), and even turns down a hot Internet trick (talk about sacrifice!). Too bad for him that Aaron has been found out, sent home in shame and put into a rehabilitation center that administers aversion shock therapy – a shrill bit of business right out of The Snake Pit. Convinced Aaron is the one he has been waiting for his whole life (one kiss and they’re head over heels?), Christian goes off in search of his true love.

Cox leans on numerous romantic movie clichés to tell his “opposites attract” tale, mixing in sex (likely to put off the crossover audience), one-liners (some hilarious, some overly raunchy) and reliably comfy messages about brotherhood and family diversity. But for all its wit and polish – it looks good for a film made for a mere $850,000 – Latter Days relies far too heavily on contrivance and is fatally overstuffed with subplots, not to mention being dramatically overwrought at times. For what it’s worth, I admire Cox for challenging our community’s values and addressing the subject of homosexuality and Mormonism (handled in a much more accessible way than Angels in America, no disrespect to Angels intended). I don’t believe Chris and Aaron’s relationship has a snowball’s chance of surviving beyond a month, but I guess gay people need their cornball happy endings, too. (Hillcrest Cinemas)

Directed by Tony Shalhoub

Written by Lynne Adams

Starring Brooke Adams, Lynne Adams, Tony Shalhoub

Made-Up’s credits say it all: “a Sister Film release of a Vanity production.” Sisters Lynne and Brook Adams (Days of Heaven, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) have made a low-budget, feature-length home movie about two siblings grappling with careers, kids and the impact of aging in a youth-oriented society. Lynne scripted (using elements of her one-woman play, Two-Faced) and stars, along with Adams (who helmed the Los Angeles production of Lynne’s play) and her real-life actor-husband, Tony Shalhoub (Against the Ropes, and television’s “Monk”), who also directed. (Pant. Gasp.) I heard somewhere that Brooke not only offered her home for the filming, but that you can see some of her actual artwork in the film. And did I mention that the Adams sisters are in almost every shot? Sounds like a “vanity” production to me.

Lynne plays Kate, an aspiring filmmaker who wants her divorced, graying sister, former actress Elizabeth James Tivey, to star in a documentary exploring beauty, obsession with appearance and all that it implies. The hook is that she will be extensively “made-up” (girdle, wig, tape-on facelift strips, etc.) by her aspiring cosmetologist daughter, Sara (Eva Amurri), and then go out with her ex-husband (Gary Sinese) to see how he’ll react (though she says she’s only going to get him to spring for Sara’s cosmetology school tuition). Unexpectedly, the documentary (“made-up” as it goes along – get it?) brings a new man into her life: a gentlemanly bartender-actor named Max (Shalhoub), who works at the restaurant where Liz meets up with her ex.

I realize this was a labor of love for the Adamses (they even co-produced the movie, with Shalhoub), but we’ve seen this movie-within-a-movie idea countless times before, done much funnier (see: anything by Christopher Guest) and with much more bite. Nothing in Made-Up stands out (though it’s nice to see Brooke Adams acting again): It is routine and utterly ordinary, limited by its tiny budget and a lack of originality. It doesn’t even follow through thematically. (After being critical of our culture’s obsession with appearance, it seems to imply that getting dolled up for the opposite sex is a good thing, ultimately.) Considering the limited appeal of such a project, and the paltry distribution it will no doubt receive as a result, you have to ask yourself what drove these likeable sisters to so thoroughly invest themselves in something so inconsequential. (Madstone)

Kyle Counts is the film critic for the Gay & Lesbian Times.

Rating system:

**** a must-see

*** worth your time

** average

* poor

BOMB (think Ishtar and Paycheck)