The R.M.

A Mormon youth (Kirby Heyborne) returns from two years of missionary duty only to find that his life has turned into a country western song: his family has moved away, his girl has dumped him, he’s lost his job, etc. The script by John Moyer and director Kurt Hale, like Hale’s direction itself, is cheerfully unpretentious and defiantly wholesome, with a sweetness that makes us willing to overlook the frequent awkward touches (some of the bit players are self-consciously amateur, and the climactic courtroom scene is clumsy and overdone). Heyborne makes an appealingly put-upon hero, like a white-bread version of the young Woody Allen, and Britani Bateman is his attractive love interest. Non-Mormons may find themselves scratching their heads at the church-related in-jokes, but much of the film is surprisingly funny.