It's a good thing that no one pays extra for Lifetime to be included in their cable-channel bundle (do they?) because this film was a complete waste of time -- it was 87 minutes that I'll never get back, and I'm not happy about it.This adaptation of a novel ignored one key aspect of its source material: the sexual orientation of Jordan, the Matt Czuchry character. Although the adaptation did not completely disrespect the novel by, say, having Jordan as a love interest for his old friend, Queenie, I think it would have added something significant to the story to have this woven into the narrative.Even ignoring the mismatch between novel and film on that dimension, other key elements of the story are just barely credible. How many times does Hiram tell his wife Queenie to mind her own business and stay away from Jordan, only for her to show up quite openly in the very next scene with Jordan, definitely not minding her own business? And who else thought it was completely unrealistic that a 16-year-old girl (Five) with no access to the outside world would, over the span of just a month, run away to Vegas, then come back to a nearby town (well, 50 miles away) and work in a coffee shop, periodically sneaking back to Mesadale to visit her mother?I guess it was a coup for Lifetime to get Czuchry before "The Good Wife" became popular, but no amount of his charm and acting skill can save this.

BeckyLyn (Patricia Wettig) is arrested for killing her husband Sawyer Scott. She's his 19th wife in a Mormon sect. Queenie (Chyler Leigh) doesn't believe the charge and asks BeckyLyn's son Jordan Scott (Matt Czuchry) to return to Mesadale. He was exiled as a boy for touching Queenie's arm. The Prophet pushes her sheriff husband Hiram to get a confession to avoid a lengthy trial. The defense lawyer pushes her to accept a deal but she claims to be innocent. Jordan encounters Sarah 'Five' (Alexia Fast) daughter of the 23rd wife on the outside who is trying to get her mother out. Meanwhile, Queenie is secretly reading a book about Brigham Young's 19th wife.I like the portrayal of the polygamist world. The murder mystery needs to be heightened. The style skews too much to a Lifetime TV movie. It needs to be done in an intense dramatic way. The acting is solid. The flashbacks to Brigham Young are unnecessary unless this is an advocacy piece. That's what this feels like to some extend. It would be more compelling if this is adapted to be a more exciting thriller.

The acting isn't terrible and that's about the only thing you can say.If you read the book, you'll hate this movie as they've gutted it (and not just the "heterosexualization" of Jordan). If you liked BIG LOVE, pass this one by- it's nothing like it. If by some odd chance you read Ann Eliza Young's book (or Irving Wallace's about her) you'll hate this movie as it not only gets everything wrong but takes less than 10 minutes and that in blips. Most of the scenes in the movie last on average about 30 seconds each and there are many plot holes, some from the book and some that the movie cooked up.Just to correct a couple of historical errors: Ann Eliza Webb was NOT an adult when her father brought home his first plural wife but a baby so young she grew up in a polygamous family and had no memory of a life before it. She and Brigham Young had no children together- she had two sons with a first husband (omitted from the movie) and he had a few dozen with other women. Dramatic as it may seem, she did not flee from an angry mob- she checked into a hotel, gave constant interviews, and when she left town it was on a train and she sued him for a ton of alimony (unsuccessfully as their marriage was not legally recognized). That's an impressive number of errors considering the Ann Eliza story lasted all of about 5 minutes in this movie and could/should have been dropped altogether. (Her melodramatic ghost written tell-none is far from likely to inspire anybody in the modern era; even Ebershoff completely rewrote it and making her family far less interesting as he did so). This movie is basically a waste. I hope that most of the money went to Patricia Wettig's salary as she was by far the best thing in it. I read and did not like the book (too much purple prose and too much historical inaccuracy and too much clearly vanity driven inclusions with the murder mystery, which should have been the focus, taking up maybe 5% of the book's text). Compared to the movie, the book is a masterpiece. Not good, not so-bad-it's-good, just all around mediocre with a heaping side dish of "yeah right", followed by a yawn.

I make a point of avoiding these "made for TV" films as this one clearly is. But every now and again I pander to the wife's (singular ;)) film taste. This one had a good rating on here, so I thought I would give it a go. I'm so pleased I did, one of the better films I have seen lately. So despite other reviews that complain about the location "Hello, 99.99% of people viewing this will not be experts on where these communities thrive in the US" and care not if there may be one too many trees for this to be feasible to you (I don't recall noticing a tree at all, I was busy watching the film). The first thing I noticed was this strange hairdo all the women seemed to don, which gave a sense of submission to a controlling ethics, so far from detracting or being weird actually added to the essence of the situation...what are these people moaning about ??? too many trees, strange hair...come on people! Anyway, The story is compelling I found myself getting really annoyed that these people really exists and these poor women accept that treatment from men and furthermore from a "Prophet". The Acting was superb from all concerned, the direction/editing was sufficient so that You knew exactly who was who, and carried the story along at a comfortable pace, although the ending did seem a little pow! there you go ! jobs done after a very pleasing unwinding development of all other aspects, maybe it could have been more stretched as to "getting just done to the right person, it all seemed a bit easy, and quick, I would have liked to have built up real hatred or sympathy to the person one way or another (you'll know what I mean when you see it). other than that, a huge pat on the back for all concerned.