Lifetime
With Hulu having a hit reality series with Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, not to mention the long-running TLC reality series Sister Wives, it was inevitable that Lifetime would forego the Amish stories for ones set in the world of polygamous families. Hot on the heels of the fact-based Surviving My Father: The Rachel Jeffs Story, the network now gives us a fictionalized polygamy story with Secret Lives of Sister Wives.
Jazzlyn Rea stars as teenager Calli Miller, first seen at a community dance making googly eyes over a boy she likes. When he offers to get her some lemonade, community leader Nicholas approaches her and warns her that the boy she’s interested in has a history of putting alcohol or drugs into a girl’s drink so he can take advantage of them. This stuns Calli, and when Nicholas asks her to dance she agrees, leaving the poor boy left to hold both of their lemonades. Later at Nicholas’s home, it is revealed he has three wives, one pregnant, and four young daughters. They all seem to be in on a plan that Nicholas will bring Calli into their home, excited that there will be a new wife among them. Wife number one, Mary, seems less than thrilled though, and when Calli does come for a visit Mary almost immediately puts her to work, first tending to the rowdy children and then scrubbing floors like Cinderella. Calli also overhears her mother Rebecca speaking with Nicholas, learning that if she gives her blessing and allows Calli to become a new sister wife, he will buy her a new house. It take Rebecca about a tenth of a second to say yes to selling her daughter off for a new house.
Calli and pregnant sister wife Beth seem to bond pretty quickly, and her relationship with Abbie becomes complicated when Calli discovers Abbie in bed with another man, Jacob. She begs Calli not to tell Nicholas because she loves Jacob, but Mary overhears them talking in the shed. Mary is extremely jealous of Calli, to the point that she puts a tracker on her bicycle. One day she follows Calli to her mom’s house (the old one as Nicholas has not come through with his promise yet but he seems to roll it out every time he wants something from Rebecca) where Calli takes a pregnancy test. It’s positive and Calli leaves it in the trash can outside, which Mary retrieves and drops the news on the family at dinner before Calli can say anything. Stunned and worried about Nicholas’s temper — his mode of discipline is beating his wives, and children, with his heavy leather belt — Calli tells him she wanted to make sure since those tests can have false positives. So off to the doctor they go the next day (and earlier, before bringing Calli into the family he put her through a humiliating doctor’s exam to make sure she could bear children) … but Mary slips Calli’s phone and wallet out of her purse before they leave knowing Abbie would be home alone. When Calli discovered her things were missing, they had no choice but to turn around and go home. Jacob made it out in the nick of time, but Nicholas now knows of Abbie’s deceit. He pulls Jacob, his employee, for a chat one day at work, and Jacob assures Nicholas he will leave town. Nicholas makes sure of that, but only Jacob’s spirit makes an exit as Nicholas has his henchman Damian choke the life out of the young man.
Lifetime
By this point, Calli is desperate to escape and after a first failed attempt, she finally makes her way to her aunt Leah’s house (in another state and with no explanation of how she got there though she rode off on her bike), knowing Leah herself escaped a life of captivity with Nicholas. But Nicholas pays a visit to Rebecca to find out where Calli is, and she can only assume she is with Leah, but she doesn’t know exactly where she lives. No matter, it only takes Nicholas a minute to find out and he and Damian arrive at Leah’s house and convince Calli to leave with them, forcing her to leave a note making it sound like she left willingly. Leah ain’t buying it and pays a visit to her sister to tell her what’s going on. Meanwhile, Nicholas has Calli locked in a windowless attic room with only a bed to lay on, having to be attended to by the sister wives. Beth feels betrayed by Calli trying to leave, Abbie blames Calli for being found out despite Calli telling her it was Mary who took her phone and wallet, and Mary just wants Calli gone, especially since she’s finally giving Nicholas the one thing none of the other wives have — a son. Mary is even preparing Calli tea made from wormwood leaves to make her sick and do harm to the baby she’s carrying. Her plot with the tea almost becomes obvious when Nicholas almost drinks from Calli’s mug, and Calli finally puts two and two together as to why she’s been feeling so ill. She brings it up to Nicholas, but Mary denies it and after some hesitation allows him to drink the tea she made for Calli. Nothing happens so he thinks Calli is lying, but he later discovers the wormwood in the shed, leading to an altercation with Mary that leaves her dead. As he and Damian drive off with the body to bury it in the woods far away, Nicholas gets an alert from the security camera outside of Calli’s room. Rebecca and Leah are there, and now they have to turn around to head them off before the break Calli out of her attic prison. But when they return, will they be able to prevent Calli from escaping, and will the other two wives finally see Nicholas for who he truly is?
Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is an okay story about a sordid subject, at least in every day society where polygamy isn’t the norm. If you’ve seen any of the reality shows about polygamous cults, this one is pretty vague about the community and it seems that Nicholas is the only male in charge, as opposed to the community presided over by Warren Jeffs in real life. Outside of the dance and Nicholas’ factory, there is no real sense of what this community is. It doesn’t seem to be in the middle of nowhere like the FLDS communities are, and it doesn’t seem to carry any heavy religious aspects to it either. There are a lot of questions as to how this one man can hold such sway over all of these people. He’s more like a polygamous mob boss than anything else. Even in a real FLDS community, the men who overstep their bounds are just banished but not murdered. So why Rebecca is so thrilled that Nicholas as taken an interest in her daughter is never really explained. The story, by Bryan Dick and Ken Sanders, just slowly builds, allowing Mary to become almost as nefarious as Nicholas (her switch is really flipped when Calli becomes pregnant with a boy and Nicholas wants to divorce Mary, though she’ll still be part of the family, so he can marry Calli legally and give the boy his name). Things finally pick up when Nicholas discovers the tea plot, and then the story is like a snowball rolling downhill at a breakneck pace, making the last 30 minutes or so the most exciting part of the movie. Director Doug Campbell doesn’t do anything fancy, but keeps the story on track, juggling the characters and the various situations, keeping everything together so it all (mostly) makes sense until he can really cut loose and amp up the tension as the story rushes to its conclusion. It just feels like it takes a little too much time to get there.
Lifetime
The performances are all very good and help elevate any of the weaknesses of the screenplay. Jazzlyn Rea gives Calli a strength that she needs so she isn’t just another victim. She never allows Calli to feel comfortable in her situation, she feels like property that her mother sold off for her own gain, she does what she can to protect herself, and the only moment she can feel like herself again is when she arrives at Leah’s, where Rea can finally relax and not always be on edge with her performance (though that is very short-lived). Rea conveys Calli’s fear under the surface, but never allows her performance to become hysterical. She has to keep her wits about her, especially where Mary is concerned, and she does a great job and bringing all of Calli’s emotions to life. Randy Spence is also terrific as Nicholas, always with a sense of menace to him even when he’s assuring Calli that as long as she doesn’t cross him, she has nothing to worry about. That’s not very reassuring. He plays Nicholas like the classic snake in the grass character, charming when he needs to be, terrifying the rest of the time. Even when he is chatting with Jacob, he makes it seem like Nicholas is very forgiving and then casually gives the word to Damian to kill the young man. It’s a pretty chilling moment. Spence does a great job with the smooth talking Nicholas needs to get people to bend to his will, and can snap in the blink of an eye, making Nicholas someone you don’t want to cross.
Clark Sarullo is also very good as Mary. With her performance, she wears her heart on her sleeve. She puts on the act that Mary is just fine with whatever Nicholas wants, but she never really hides her disdain for Calli, and she relishes exposing Abbie betrayal. Sarullo is so controlled with her performance of Mary that it’s hard to gauge her threat level because she keeps her feelings on such an even keel … and that makes her even more dangerous than Nicholas. Her Mary is cold and calculating and will do anything to maintain her position as top dog among the wives. Ella Frazee is also good as Abbie, putting on the front that all is well, and really shocking everyone when she ends up in bed with another man … in Nicholas’ house! But she also shows how manipulated Abbie is when she still blames Calli for what Mary did. She also has a great reaction moment when she looks in the back of Damian’s truck during the climactic scene that felt so genuine you have to wonder if they surprised her with something to get that reaction. Isabella Carlsen doesn’t have a lot to do as Beth, the very pregnant sister wife. She makes her friendship with Calli feel authentic, so it’s heartbreaking when she turns on Calli after her attempted escape, blaming her for how Nicholas is treating the rest of them. Brooke Burfitt also does a nice job as Rebecca, making her a woman totally brainwashed by this cult leader, believing it is an honor that he wants her teenage daughter to be one of his wives. Amanda Nicholas also has a few nice moments as Leah, comforting her niece, and then going into warrior mode with her sister to save Calli.
It may be a little slow-going as the story builds to its climax, but the excellent performances and that last half hour make Secret Lives of Mormon Wives worth a watch if you have some time to spare.
Secret Lives of Sister Wives has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.