'The Mission' Fails To Embark As Fascinating Tale

Competing for the Darwin Award, John Chau, a missionary from Oral Roberts University, decides to embark on Sentinel Island, India, to convert its hunter-gatherer society to Christianity. As you can imagine, it doesn't end well for John. Even one of John's best friends from Oral Roberts states that what his friend did was incredibly stupid. Although making a foolish decision, John himself isn't dumb. John trained to be a doctor and missionary. You can't be weak-minded to study both. He's very literate and cares deeply for his friends. In many respects, John is an idealistic Christian who uses Jesus' teaching to promote love instead of division.

For all the positive traits John encompasses, his decision to convert a tribe of people who want nothing to do with Christianity is irritating. Why does he need to bother these people? Is it to save them? What is he saving them from? The film doesn't spend much time on John's demise as it's more about the type of person he is. But none of it is that interesting. I care less about how great a guy John was and wanted to cut to the chase when it came to his death since that's where the real story is. When we know what the outcome of John's adventure to India is, there's not much that's enticing to sit through. Where's the fallout? I want to see how John's death affected his friends and family. There's a story to be told after his death that's almost completely ignored. 

Much of the narrative is told through a series of cartoon animations and representational b roll. By representational B roll, I'm talking about cutaways relating to what the subject is talking about. For instance, if someone mentions Jesus, the film cuts to an old religious film. A large majority of the picture is made via cartoon reenactments of John's mission to Sentinel Island. 

Narrating much of the story is Lawrence Kao providing the voice of John as he reads his journal, documenting what happened for the audience to hear. Herein lies another problem with the movie. We never hear John's actual voice. Instead, it's someone else voicing him. It's understandable why this decision was made. Since John has passed, he obviously can't narrate his journal. But what of the moments that we see documented from his camera? There are plenty of home videos made from John's GoPro. Is there no audio from him with that? Hearing John would have brought the audience closer to him. Without hearing it, we get less of an idea of who he is. I doubt he's someone with a thick Asian accent, yet the guy who provides his voice has one. 

The picture attempts to tell a moving story about a well-intentioned man who made a fatal mistake. John's death isn't only because of him, but the people that enabled him. His peers could have urged him not to go. So could have his father. If they did press upon him not to enter a suicide mission, it's not documented in this story. There's nothing special about The Mission, as it's just a story about another guy who shouldn't have butted his way into other people's business.

To quote the late Roger Ebert, "The movies are a machine that generates empathy." Unfortunately, for a cold-hearted demon like me, I had trouble empathizing with John Chau. The film tries hard for us to care about him. It talks to his friends, other explorers, and a girl he tried to romance. None of it does much for me to care about this person. If we're walking into this movie with the description giving away what happens in the end, then the film doesn't have a lot of legs to go on. This film could learn something from Grizzly Man, another movie about someone who invaded other people's privacy and paid the ultimate price for it.

I get that filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine are trying to make a story about a great kid who wanted to do nothing more but spread love. I know this film wants to make its audience understand John, even to love him, but it didn't work for me, at least not for a feature. If The Mission were cut down to a short film, it would have been far more effective. A documentary feature about John Chau is well-intentioned but dull cinema.