The main difference between good and great performers?  Both perform great feats of skill, but the great performers make it look easy.  Compare the world's best magicians, athletes, musicians, actors and the like, and one defining characteristic is not only what they do, but how they make it look so casual and effortless that you think they just woke up one morning with great ability instead of painstakingly developing it over time.

The beauty of "The Best Two Years" ("B2Y") is not just that it's engrossing, funny, and heart-warming, but how easily it seems to do it.   "B2Y" moves from good scene to good scene--from humor to pathos back to humor again--and barely seems to break a sweat doing it, unlike many of the other LDS comedies from the past five years which almost universally seem to struggle mightily to get even half-a-laugh most of the time.

"B2Y" shares the same subject matter with "God's Army" (LDS missionary work), yet the two movies couldn't be more different, which goes to show just how wide ranging a subject missionary work can be.   "B2Y" is not as ambitious or challenging as "God's Army", but is just as successful in the end with its aim to be simple and endearing--with a few (or more) laughs along the way.

From the fact that the majority of the dialogue is between four main characters within a single apartment you might guess (correctly) that "B2Y" was originally a play.   As with most plays, the focus is on character and dialogue, not dramatic action.   All four missionaries are solid, compelling characters and the banter between them is subtle and humorous.   Elders Calhoun and Van Pelt are, admittedly, written with pretty broad characterizations--common with play characters--but the actors portray them well and they avoid being over-simplistic. "B2Y" does a couple of things specifically well which deserve mention. It doesn't fall into the trap of making the entire movie only about the companionship of Elder Rogers and Calhoun with the other companionship there just as supporting characters. Elder Johnson in particular has a direct and personal involvement in key events near the end of the movie which properly treats him as a main character--in fact, showing an interesting turn around of some of the plot items introduced earlier in the movie.

Also, the film doesn't neuter the doctrinal and spiritual aspect of missionary work (like "The Other Side of Heaven" did), but neither does it overwhelm the viewer with information or inside jokes that a non-Church member wouldn't understand.  Of course, being a member--and especially having served a mission yourself--will help make some of the jokes funnier, but nothing in "B2Y" would be incomprehensible for non-members who watched it either.   I can't say if many non-Church members would have a particular interest in watching "B2Y" at all, but since the film focuses on human characters and their universal trials and emotions, the film is certainly accessible to everyone (and doesn't come across as a two hour commercial for the Church). In short, "B2Y" is a simple and effective film that represents the best theatrical LDS content the industry has to offer.

Final Grade: A-

Analysis and Other Comments (Possible spoilers)

(1)  "B2Y" is not nearly as dark and challenging as "God's Army", but does share with Richard Dutcher's film a small and subtle message about blindly assuming someone who has completed a two-year mission 'honorably' is a hard worker, has high moral standards, and is fit to be a good husband and father.   At the beginning of the film, Elder Rogers has lost all interest in working and is just taking up space.   He does have a change of heart in the end, but (in real life) it's probably more likely he would have just quietly finished out the last few months without doing anything.   Ask anyone who has served a mission and they can tell you that there are elders (and sisters, too) who after a certain point in their missions (sometimes right from the beginning) lose interest in doing anything productive and just idle away the time. They don't do anything technically 'wrong' which is why most mission presidents (like the one in "B2Y") won't send them home, but instead try to help them anyway they can.   (And sometimes it works and they have a change of heart...)   Some girls say they can 'tell' if their missionary was a faithful and hard worker when they're dating...but, frankly, from what I've seen, many either can't, or don't really care either way in the end.

(2)  If any non-members do watch "Best Two Years", they might wonder at how often LDS girls seem to get engaged to guys they've just met for a few weeks.  "I'm sure Mormon girls don't actually do that," they might think, "that must be an exaggeration for comedic effect, or something..."

Um...afraid not.  Without going into a long rant, it's amazing how many girls spend more time and thought picking out the wedding dress they're taking to the temple, than the man they're taking...

(3)  One experience from my mission that watching "Best Two Years" brought to mind:

In our mission we had one elder about whom it was obvious from almost the very beginning that his primary distinguishing characteristic was his sense of humor. It didn't take too long before he became known as the mission 'joker'--someone who would always have a funny (often irreverent) comment for any situation, and could be counted on to perform a practical joke on someone else that would have the whole mission laughing within a month. As you might guess, he was not a particularly good missionary--despite not doing anything outright wicked--but just one of those elders that makes the mission president sigh and say 'Okay...what am I going to do with him this month?'

My mission president mentioned this elder in one of my personal interviews and had some interesting things to say.  He said--admitting that every elder is still personally responsible for his own mission in the end--this elder doesn't deserve all of the 'blame'.   He said this elder probably knew early on in his mission that he was never going to be known as one of the best leaders, or one of the most spiritual, or one of the hardest workers, or have the best foreign language skills, but what he could be known for among all the other homogenous missionaries with identical suits and ties was being the 'joker'.  Since it's natural for people to enjoy attracting other people's attention and standing out from the crowd, it became his accepted 'persona' in the mission.

But that might not have happened--my mission president went on--if this 'persona' hadn't also been simultaneously accepted and encouraged by everyone else in the mission as well.   Everyone thought this elder was funny--and that was part of the problem, because this contributed to the encouragement this elder felt to be funny, even at the expense of other things.   In a way, he (the elder) was trapped, because once this persona was defined, everyone else treated him like the 'joker' and even if perhaps there came a time afterwards where he had the desire to be an effective, serious missionary, he probably felt he couldn't get away with it.  No one would take him seriously. ("Is this another one of your jokes, Elder?")

My mission president made the important and truthful point that in a lot of ways, our personas in life are shaped by how others treat us, and if one or more elders had been willing to treat this elder as a 'serious' missionary, instead of constantly giving him subtle encouragement to continue the 'joker' persona ("You're moving to [place X]? They'd better watch out! You'll be wreaking havoc there in no time, huh?"), things might have been different.

This came to mind, because at the beginning, Elder Rogers is a lazy missionary--no question--and Elders Johnson and Van Pelt treat him that way. Yet, when his new companion arrives, Johnson and Van Pelt tell him to treat Elder Rogers as if he was one of the best missionaries in the mission--and, you know what?  That was one of the keys towards Elder Rogers actually becoming one of the best missionaries in the mission at the end.