Product: The 19th Wife (2010)
Rating: 2.0
A Literary Adaptation Of A Provocative Polygamist Bestseller--This TV Movie Struggles To Stand On Its Own
In the world of Lifetime movies, a genre populated by "based on real incidents" docudramas, women in peril thrillers, and prurient "ripped from the headline" scandals or crime stories, they occasionally break the mold to adapt a popular fiction. In my mind, some of their more successful ventures have been these literary adaptations--"The Tenth Circle" and "The Memory Keeper's Daughter," for example, worked as stand alone movies even if fans of the books were disappointed by the oversimplification of the presentations. I think those who were intrigued by David Ebershoff's bestseller "The 19th Wife" will likewise be displeased by this by-the-numbers accounting--but more problematic, the film may also fail to appeal to newbies with no connection to the source material. This seemed a can't miss entertainment combining murder and polygamy, but the story is stretched too thin and the principle characters tend to be completely unbelievable.The novel's hook is that it paralleled a modern murder investigation with a historical examination of one of Brigham Young's more rebellious wives. "The 19th Wife" benefits tremendously with the casting of Patricia Wettig (Thirtysomething) as a compound wife charged with murdering her husband. Unfortunately the film actually centers around Chyler Leigh (Grey's Anatomy), a young progressive who sets out to prove Wettig's innocence. Enlisting her childhood friend and Wettig's son, Matt Czuchry (The Good Wife, Gilmore Girls), the two start to unravel the truths of the case and deal with unresolved feelings of betrayal and resentment. Wettig does well, as you might expect, and Czuchry is appropriately bitter having been cast out as a boy--but they are, by far, the best things about the movie. Leigh is the single most unbelievable representative of a polygamist sect ever put on film. Raised on the principle, she is so extraordinarily modern and free--at home to openly disregard any aspect of the lifestyle that inconveniences the plot. Oh, it made my head hurt!By itself, though, it's an interesting enough story even if the final revelations lack a bit of conviction. But the film also tries to incorporate the Brigham Young aspect into the plot by having Leigh read the elicit diary of a woman ahead of her time. At about 95 minutes, it is really just too little time to represent either story very effectively. This is where fans of the novel are likely to be up-in-arms, the story really becomes a skeleton of the complexities you might have admired about the book! Surprisingly, I'm still going to give this a nominal recommendation only for Wettig's fans--we don't see her often enough and she can't be held guilty for the sins of this unremarkable TV movie. KGHarris, 2/11.