For all its contrivances, impossible coincidences, and overloaded plot devices, this film from director C. Jay Cox has an unexpected effectiveness. Maybe it’s something about the presumably polar opposites of characters from the rigid upbringing of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints contrasted with those who call the fast and easy streets of contemporary LA home. On the other hand, maybe the obvious sincerity of the effort comes through in spite of itself. The first feature film from Cox falls prey to the common pitfall of over ambition. Well-crafted films with gay or lesbian central themes and characters are still relatively rare, and it seems Cox succumbed to the urge to preach to a big crowd. He wants his movie to say too much.

It is the story of Aaron, a guileless young Mormon missionary and the ironically named Christian, a sexy swinger. They meet, have a close encounter of a different kind, change each other’s lives and those of everyone around them, all within a couple of weeks, and depart on the road to happily ever after. Aaron is part of a team of missionaries on his first trip away from home. They’ve come to Los Angeles to fill their obligation to spread the Mormon word of God. Christian, a hot, hip young waiter shares the same apartment complex. The story is chiefly a gay romance with a transparent message, and at its core is the notion that love conquers all, especially when people look deeper than the surface of themselves. When he’s not working at the comfortable upscale bistro run by Lila (Jacqueline Bisset), Christian’s on a never-ending quest for new sexual conquests and adventures.

On a lark, Christian makes a bet with some co-workers that he can bed the cute new neighbor inside of two weeks, and predictably, Christian is the one who does a lot of the changing. Obscuring and tangling this premise are the other stories circling this one; about Lila’s dying paramour, Christian’s best friend and wanna-be singer, his abrupt commitment to a dying AIDS patient, Aaron’s unbending father and doting but unenlightened mother (Mary Kay Place). Even so, the genuine gentleness in Aaron as portrayed by Steve Sandross rises far enough above the weaknesses in the screenplay to make us care about him.

The indictment of the rigidity of the Mormon church, as it closes ranks to excommunicate offenders and the scene where Aaron is brought before them, suggests a lot of the men around the table at the tribunal may find his sexual orientation uncomfortably close to home. A recurring angel theme and metaphors about viewing the world from a larger perspective than the one you see grow tedious, and the tidy ending is just too tidy, but there is something about the whole, when put together, I found moving in an admittedly sentimental way.