Critic Reviews

• Ty Burr, Boston Globe

  Handsomely mounted but awfully bland.

• John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press

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

• Tom Keogh, Seattle Times

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

• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

  A pretty but weakly written and acted period piece.

• Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic

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

• Wade Major, Boxoffice Magazine

  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.

• Eric D. Snider, EricDSnider.com

  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.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

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

• Luke Y. Thompson, New Times

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

• Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star

  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.

• Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City

  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.

• Audrey Rock-Richardson, Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah)

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

Read all 12 critic reviews