Is it a fictionalized drama, or is it a feature-length commercial for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? There’s more of the latter than the former in this story that follows a MoTabs singer named Aubrey Larson (Sarah Kent), flashing back and forth over the course of five years in the life of her family as the music of the choir—and her Mormon faith in general—gets them through a series of crises. Director Brian Brough occasionally approaches interesting material in the contentious relationship between Aubrey and her meddling mother-in-law (Anne Sward), and is wise enough to include plenty of beautiful choir music to provide the emotional centerpiece. But at its core, this is like a hundred other faith-based melodramas, with overwrought depictions of everything from grief to contemplations of suicide, and plentiful recommendations to pray about difficult life decisions. As sincere and occasionally effective as it may be at demonstrating what a community can do to support you when life gets hard, there likely would be more stirring drama in a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert documentary.
By
Scott Renshaw