The 19th Wife

Having not read the book, I watched this to see Matt Czuchry from The Good Wife. Unfortunately, he doesn't play a man with many wives but one who was exiled as a teenager from the polygamist sect. He returns to the town he hated because his mother is on trial for his father's murder and to see his lost love Queenie, who is now married to someone else. Apparently in the book, his character is gay, but the only thing this movie has going for it is the romance/chemistry of the two leads, so I can see why it was changed.

The worst part of this movie is by far the editing, the hair stylist (why does it have to be PUFFY???), the location scout (ARIZONA???). But if you want an excuse to watch "Cary Agos" wear a leather jacket, drive a truck, get beaten up and give lots of smoldering glances, it is definitely worth your two hours.

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.

Just a follow up to some of the other reviews. Location: there is a sect here in Canada and as others have said, the location/surroundings are incidental to the plot. The sect in Canada has been the subject of repeated investigations and even prosecutions, not to mention a coup. Hairstyles: the stylist got it spot on, that is exactly how the wives are required to wear their hair. The clothing was also correct. I am guessing the reviewers complaining about the hairstyles are not familiar with this religion. Where I live there are other religions that also have similar dress requirements though they are not polygamous, Amish, Mennonite.

I thought the movie handled the book really well - you can't fit all of a book into a 90 minute movie.

I have quite a bit of knowledge about the Mormon Church although my relatives are not from the fundamental branch. This is how life is run and how it is based on a money gathering men in charge society.

I have seen a few documentaries on the Canadian version of this and there is a lot of debate about how they use the social services system to collect money from the government that does not necessarily go to the women and children as intended so it was interesting to see a few digs at that.

Definitely worth a watch as a drama about a secluded life. If you are interested in the life try the book Educated by Tara Westover - fascinating and on a similar line.

This was pretty good, an interesting story surrounding a polygamist wife (the 19th) who is accused of murdering her husband. With a life sentence looming her excommunicated son returns and enlists the help of another sect wife (and former flame) in the hopes of exposing the real culprit.

There is decent acting from everyone involved here which saves this made for TV movie to a degree as there were also lots of holes I chose to ignore. I particularly enjoyed (Matt Czuchry) as Jordon and also (Chyler Leigh) who played Queenie. They had genuine chemistry together even if it did seem a bit unrealistic that Queenie's husband would allow them to spend so much time together alone. They were continually meeting up and acting all flirty.

Patricia Wettig plays the accused wife and does a decent job, its not much of a role, she's in prison and spouting religious scripture for the most part, the haircutting scene was intense. There are also several re-enacted scenes that flip back in time to the 1900's as Queenie reads a (banned book) about another wife who questioned the religion and was treated very badly by her older husband.

A bit of a twist at the end I didn't see coming but honestly what an impossible situation the prophet cult leaders placed "that person" in. So backwards.

This has been based on a bestselling book and Calgary Alberta plays Utah 3/4/15