American adolescents from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints trek to Finland for missionary service in the pallid documentary “The Mission.” Directed by Tania Anderson, the film opens with its young subjects preparing for their travels, and then tracks their two-year journeys and the challenges that attend the substantial undertaking.
One hopes that such access would yield new insights into the church. But as the events unspool, the film struggles to crystallize more than a handful of compelling points.
The documentary spends time with four missionaries in particular: Sister Bills, Sister Field, Elder Davis and Elder Pauole. (The church frowns upon the use of first names.) The young women are sunny. The young men are stolid. Beyond their general dispositions and their aptitude for Finnish, which each of them are asked to study, the film fails to bring them to life as individuals.
Upon arrival in Finland, the missionaries receive companions who serve as their roommates and proselytizing partners. The kids are instructed not to leave one another’s sight, a rule that we later learn is meant to prime the adolescents for marriage, which awaits them at home. This vital detail is obscured, however, by our surface-level time with the pairs. We see them pray side by side and knock on Finns’ doors, but before the camera, the companions default to reticence.
Being a teenager is tough enough, and living for years in a foreign city must add stress to the usual malaise. Unfortunately, Anderson’s camera feels like an outsider to this unease, less a window into a demanding time than an obstacle to our understanding.
The Mission
Not rated. In English and Finnish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
