It appears that my homey, Christian Vuissa, has a hit movie on his hands--at least within the LDS niche market. He has been getting great reviews, great word of mouth, and the distributor is spending large on advertising during...dum, dum, dum...The 2008 Olympic Games.
Yes, everything is peachy. Christian and I started pre-pro on his next film after forging a seemingly trusting relationship. He liked my work as a Production Designer and Associate Producer. I couldn't argue that he'd made another wonderfully rich film. Then, he dropped a bomb.
Apparently, he felt that the wardrobe choices I made (along with my famous clothing designer friend Gigi Ashley Munns) were a little over-the-top. Shocked and chagrined, I argued that the wardrobe was stunning, and if anything, underdone as a result of low budget. Christian responded that he felt it was distracting, and so ultimately bad. I'd take that as a valid criticism if the guy didn't like Tom Tykwer.
But, if you are going to survive in the film business then you have to develop some thick skin, so I conceded, "Okay, maybe some totally lame Molly Mormon sticklers will point out the wardrobe as a distraction, but I guarantee the average viewer won't even notice it." I even went so far as to suggest that if they were noticing the wardrobe he wasn't doing his job as a storyteller.
Then, Christian clued me in to a review by a guy named Joe Schmow (or something like that) with the byline, The Independent Critic. This guy loved Christian's movie. Like, LOVED it--and he isn't even LDS! However, he had some issues with one aspect of the film:
"Filmed on location in Vuissa's native Austria, The Errand of Angels is mesmerizingly vibrant largely owing to the stellar cinematography of Brian Wilcox (Touched by an Angel) and Joshua Ligairi's (Me and You and Everyone We Know) complementary production design, though I will confess that, on a couple of occasions, I found myself questioning Ligairi's costuming choices as being a bit 'sexy' for the mission field or minimally thinking 'Would they really be allowed to wear that?'"
So, it isn't that bad, but when you take into consideration that the rest of the review is nothing but a glowing love-fest, you have to wonder what factor would have made Joe Schmow give the flick an A- rather than a solid A. Let's just say Christian had a big "I told you so" for me.
Catch The Errand of Angels in theaters starting August 21st and on DVD around Thanksgiving. See Gigi's clothes (that are much cooler than anything in the movie) at her website.Moderator's update » 11.24.08 » The Errand of Angels is now available on DVD at Deseret Book. You can hear an interview with filmmaker, Christian Vuissa, in Episode 1 of our podcast, 801 Underground.
