Lifetime
Lifetime rolls out another biopic that dramatizes a story that has already been well-trod on several reality TV shows and streaming docuseries, this one focusing on the story of Rachel Jeffs, one of the many children of Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS for short, a cult-like religious group infamous for its belief in polygamy (a man must have at least three wives to gain entrance into Heaven) and the sexual abuse of under-age girls, one of whom was Rachel at the hands of her own father.
If you’ve seen any of the previous true-life accounts of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS — Warren Jeffs: Prphet of Evil, Escaping Polygamy, The Doomsday Prophet: Truth and Lies, Secrets of Polygamy, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey or Preaching Evil: A Wife on the Run with Warren Jeffs — or were just aware of the news between Jeffs’ arrest in 2006 and conviction in 2011 (a life sentence which he is still serving, and is still guiding the members of the FLDS from prison), then this is a pretty well-known story but told from Rachel Jeffs’ perspective, as detailed in her book Breaking Free.
Surviving My Father: The Rachel Jeffs Story begins with a six-year-old Rachel who, following some misbehavior, is punished by her father. But when the punishments continue, it becomes clear that Warren is sexually abusing his daughter, and when she tries to tell her mother Barbara — who makes the mistake of confronting him about it — Barbara looks absolutely terrified and tells her daughter to go to bed and not speak of this ever. As Rachel grows into a teenager, the abuse had continued until it was announced that it was time for the now 16-year-old and her sister to marry a young man of the Prophet’s choosing (at this point, the ‘Prophet’ was Warren’s father Rulon), but the girls plead with Warren that they are not ready. He says he will allow them to stay at the house for two more years but then turns right around and marries them off, with Rachel going to a 20-something Richard Allred. Rachel is not welcomed into her new home by Rich’s two other wives, and she is quickly ostracized and not allowed to do anything by the women. On their wedding night, Rachel tells Rich that Warren told her to ask Rich for a baby, but Rich is actually understanding and tells Rachel that he will be fine with waiting until she is ready.
Lifetime
That time finally comes and Rich seems a bit shocked that Rachel knows what a man and a woman are supposed to do after the marry because the girls were forbidden to learn such thing and he asks how she knows. She breaks down and tells him her father taught her but instead of being angry, Rich consoles his newest wife. They eventually do have several children, but the sister-wives don’t treat them any better, their jealousy fully on display as they leave Rachel’s children locked in a room alone while she and Rich are out of the house. Unfortunately, this jealousy forces Rich to pull away from Rachel and focus more on the other wives. Rachel does get pregnant again but miscarries. Upon hearing of the miscarriage, Warren claims God spoke to him and told him Rachel and Rich had sexual relations while she was pregnant — breaking one of the rules — and that led to the miscarriage. They deny any such thing, but Warren has Rachel sent away until she repents from her sin. She is finally allowed out when she is given the news that her mother is on her death bed (Barbara had been diagnosed much too late with breast cancer, at Stage 4 by the time Rachel found out and angry that Warren just told her to pray and God would heal her).
While Warren is no longer sexually abusing Rachel, he is still abusing younger girls, while emotionally abusing everyone else including Rachel and her sister. At one point her sister’s husband talks back to Warren’s brother Elijah and is banished from the church, his wife and children given to another man. When Rulon dies, Warren appoints himself Prophet, claiming that was what God wanted, but many in the congregation are a bit incredulous but too fearful to challenge the claim. Making his claim even more dubious is the proclamation that Warren will marry all of Rulon’s wives, essentially marrying his grandmothers. After more obstinance on her part, Rachel’s children are taken away and she is sent to another secure home with her sister-wives to repent until Warren decides she is forgiven. When the news arrives that Warren has been arrested, he finally tells Elijah that Rachel can be freed from the house because she’s written him several letters asking for mercy. She is reunited with her children but they are still basically prisoners in the FLDS compound and not even Rich is permitted to have contact with them. With Becky having escaped to the outside world, reunited with her husband and another family member who had left and offered sanctuary, Rachel must make an impossible decision — take her children and run, hoping to avoid Warren’s ‘God Squad’ security team, or stay and endure the mental abuse while knowing the other men in the group are being given young wives by the Prophet (seeing Rich bring home his fourth wife, much younger than any of the others, only makes Rachel’s decision easier). Managing to make her way to a neighbor’s house by avoiding Elijah and his goons, Rachel makes a call and it’s not long before Becky pulls up. They load the children in but Rachel is too worried about the repercussions to leave herself and the ‘God Squad’ is too close so Becky has to leave with the children. But Rachel gets a call from her moments later telling her they are not leaving without her, and Rachel manages to hop in the car before the security team can catch her. Becky takes them all to a home where Rachel recognizes the woman waiting for them, unaware until that moment that the woman is her grandmother.
The movie ends with Rachel and Becky finally having freedom, but it does not go into any details about Rachel’s life after and how she has worked tirelessly to help others escape the FLDS — with others including Jessica Christensen, Andrea Brewer, Shanell Christensen and Kollene Snow, along with former cop Matt Browning — and that she has gotten married to Brandon Blackmore, who had also escaped from the church in 2017. So if you want to know more about what became of Rachel after her escape, you can seek out the other shows mentioned above or listen to the audio version of her book linked below.
Lifetime
Surviving My Father: The Rachel Jeffs Story could have been a much more harrowing to sit through but thankfully the director spares us of any actual scenes of abuse, leaving those things to our imagination such as when Warren spreads his legs and orders Rachel to come closer or to sit on his lap. The mere thought of it is stomach-turning enough so it certainly did not need to be depicted, so points for restraint over exploitation. While the screenplay does fictionalize some of the story, it is a fairly accurate representation of Rachel’s ordeal, and she also served as a consultant for the project, though she does not appear on-screen to tell her story like Courtney Stodden, Alana Thompson (aka Honey Boo Boo) or Nadya Suleman (Octomom) did. Nonetheless, the story feels accurate and the direction is restrained, but from a perspective of knowing pretty much all of Rachel’s story from the other series, the movie falls a little flat though your mileage may vary depending on your familiarity with Rachel, Warren and the FLDS.
The performances are also pretty restrained, as they should be as most of those living under Warren’s thumb were basically victims of psychological terror, mainly the women, but the men — while holding more power — also had to watch their behavior or risk being banished (women were sent to secure FLDS-owned properties to ‘repent’ while the men were disposable). Kaitlyn Bernard does a nice job as the grown-up Rachel (the child actress playing six-year-old Rachel is outstanding), forced to repress her feelings, keeping all of her secrets bottled up, but enjoying her relationship with her sister (which leads to trouble with one of the mothers, played by Lifetime favorite Alana Hawley Purvis), growing more frantic as her situation becomes more desperate. Having seen the real Rachel on television, Bernard pretty accurately captures her very reserved demeanor.
Michael Eklund is appropriately creepy and gross and disgusting and unnerving as Warren Jeffs — all in a good way as that is what the part calls for. The way he holds his head or grimaces while he speaks, the way he slaps his thigh when he wants Rachel to come sit is just truly disturbing. Eklund really portrays Warren’s pent-up rage, seeming to always be seething under the surface, but instead of physically hitting people, his release was the sexual abuse and the psychological manipulation to bend people to his will. The only time he really begins to lash out is from prison where he has no other way to release his anger but to yell and get physically violent (with inanimate objects, at least). Side note: considering Warren’s crimes, it’s a wonder he’s still alive in prison considering the inmates do not take kindly to child sexual abusers. He has better security than Jeffrey Epstein, apparently.
Lifetime
The ‘big’ name in this production is Britt Robertson (The Rookie, Big Sky, Little Fires Everywhere, Tomorrowland) as Rachel’s mother Barbara. She isn’t really given a lot to do but she does a very good job at being a mother figure, obviously doting on Rachel, and allowing the audience to sympathize with her once she reveals her cancer diagnosis. Despite being deeply into the church, Robertson still manages to make Barbara a sympathetic character whereas she could have just been another by-the-book FLDS mother. On the other hand, Alana Hawley Purvis puts in a glorified cameo as one of the other sister-wives and she is a force to be reckoned with, providing the film’s most shocking moment when she lashes out at Becky for her disrespect. The look on her face and the volume of and anger in her voice are all hard to forget. Honestly, in my opinion, Purvis is The GOAT of the Lifetime networks with an amazing range.
Elyse Maloway is very sweet as Becky, with nice chemistry with Bernard, making the viewer truly feel her pain when David is torn away from her. Ty Wood, giving a Jason Ritter vibe, is also very good as Richard, making him pretty atypical as an FLDS male when he first marries Rachel, becoming what one would expect later as guidance from ‘the Prophet’ dictates how he must treat his wife. Alex Rose brings a nice sense of menace to the role of Elijah, and Tyler Cody portrays David as an even more atypical male than Richard, not afraid to speak up when he feels ‘the Prophet’ is totally out of pocket with his directives.
Overall, Surviving My Father: The Rachel Jeffs Story is more straightforward in its storytelling than tabloidy, showing a lot of restraint when it could have been totally exploitative, offering some fine performances but mired down in a story that’s already been well-told several times over. If you’re new to the Rachel Jeffs saga, you may get more out of this than anyone who has seen any of the other shows. It’s very well-made but, for this viewer, it just falls a bit short of being spectacular.
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. Help is free, confidential and available 24/7. Call 800.656.4673 or visit hotline.rainn.org/online.
Surviving My Father: The Rachel Jeffs Story has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
Listen to the audio book Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs from Apple Books