In Emma's Footsteps

I was really impressed with the quality of "In Emma's Footsteps". Everything from the costumes, setting and characters helped craft an insightful story that told a well balanced narrative of an important female figure in the Mormon church. "In Emma's Footsteps" tells the story of Emma Smith, wife to the first prophet of the Mormon Church Joseph Smith, immediately following the his assassination / martyrdom . The filmmakers explore the struggle Emma had to endure while maintaining the welfare of the church members, her and her children's personal safely from the same people that killed her husband and the controversy that grew from those hard choices over the years. The filmmakers took their time to unearth as many records of the time period and the people involved to give a well rounded narrative to a piece of history that has been twisted by several groups over the years . If you are interested in learning more about Mormon history "In Emma's Footsteps" is a wonderful film that is appropriate for all ages.

Anne Hansen and Shona Kay Moyer do a fine job in their performances as Lucy Mack Smith and Emma Hale Smith but IN EMMA'S FOOTSTEPS is more of a stage play than motion picture. Brittany Wiscombe who was responsible for the screenplays of NOT CINDERELLA'S TYPE and SINGING WITH ANGELS (both excellent) co-wrote this as well as directed. The script is too much talk and not enough visual. One has only to compare it with with EMMA SMITH: MY STORY (2008), which is both "Breathtaking" and "Powerful", to see what is missing from this important follow-up. I retuned to re-see the earlier film in the theater four times and then purchased it on Blu-ray and have watched it several times over the years. I had no desire to return for a second viewing of IN EMMA'S FOOTSTEPS as much as I wanted to like the film. True it didn't have the budget that it needed and so resorted to long dialog scenes. But the producers also made the mistake of shooting the film in the 2.35:1 wide screen format. For some reason several Mormon filmmakers are drawn to this wider format even though their efforts will have only have very brief theatrical screenings and mostly be seen on wide screen televisions which are 1.78:1 (16x9). This film has a great deal of wall space with lots of talk and outdoors the limited cast seems smaller in the wider format. CandleLight, who is releasing the film has chosen to use the wider format for two shorter Church History releases: CARTHAGE and STORYTELLERS. WHY??? Because their directors like the wider format!

First off let me state that the history was interesting. To see what went on from Emma Smith's perspective was reveling and refreshing. As far as the quality of the movie goes I can't recommend this movie. Lets start with the soundtrack. The almost constant orchestration was more than annoying. Acting was off, not professional in many instances. The way the story was told through Lucy Smith got old in a hurry. The length of the movie was excessive. This could have been done just as well in a 60 minute presentation. If you are not LDS this movie will not make sense in a lot of doctrinal ways. All in all, I had to force myself to sit through this and was so glad when it was over. Speaking of which, the ending dragged on forever. I would have preferred to just read an article with this history in it.