The Work and the Glory: Critic Reviews

Handsomely mounted but awfully bland.

It's hard to imagine this movie capturing an audience outside the Mormon community.

A pretty but weakly written and acted period piece.

It occasionally catches its balance with bright supporting characters or compelling scenes, but then it stumbles again with mild scenes of characters having spiritual crises.

Offers an efficient and often credible, if overly sanitized, look at the time, place and circumstances in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was born.

Earnest, admirable and pretty, but about as compelling as one of the blander episodes of 'Little House on the Prairie.'

Ultimately stumbles in its mission to make the founding of the Mormon religion interesting to a general audience.

...plays strictly to the faithful -- most anyone else will have trouble taking Joseph Smith seriously as a non-delusional human being.

A likable, ambitious film that does its proselytizing in a roundabout way until its clumsy, final half-hour.

There's no denying there's a compelling movie in the life of the founder of the Mormon church, and there's also no denying that The Work and the Glory is not that film.

With improved production values also come high expectations, especially in terms of storytelling. So when the plotting and a few of the performances are just so-so, it's hard not to think of the film as at least a bit of a disappointment.

A smoothly mixed religious drama with all the professional production value you could expect from any film