By Thomas Baggaley

I feel like I'm writing an obituary. I guess you would typically expect a film review that starts out that way to pan the film being reviewed, but actually, The Work and the Glory III (A House Divided) is a well-done film that I really enjoyed watching. I think those who go see it will agree with me.

As usual, the cinematography is beautiful, the acting top-notch and it's a well-made although perhaps not overly remarkable film, just like the previous two films in the series. Where the obituary part comes in is in the realization that this is the last film that is going to be made from the best-selling series of historical novels by Gerald Lund.

And the reason is not because the story has reached its final conclusion. The reason is money. The films are too expensive to make, and although they have brought in a reasonable income for a market the size of the LDS market (actually they have done quite well compared to other LDS cinema films), they just haven't made enough money to cover the costs of production and justify continuing the series. Larry Miller may be a bleeding-heart philanthropist who financed the films more out of a love for the stories themselves than for his well-honed business sense that this was an investment that had a reasonable chance of adding to his financial empire, but enough is enough.

And in releasing this final film, it feels like the death knell — not only for this series of films, but for the entire LDS Cinema movement itself. Sure, there may be one or two more straggler releases in the theaters, and the movement seems to have taken up a second, probably more reasonable life in the form of direct-to-video releases.

But with the financial failure of LDS cinema's best-financed effort to date, and with nothing that stands out on the horizon as a legitimately interesting LDS cinema theatrical release, you've got to wonder if it's time for an autopsy on the movement itself. Even Richard Dutcher's sequel to "the film that started it all," God's Army II, bombed from day one in theaters. Need I say more?

The worst part is that it feels so incomplete — like there's so much more to do. LDS cinema never produced that one film that really stood out and made you say, "That's what LDS cinema really could be." Instead the movement seemed to become the training ground for novice filmmakers who wanted to learn how to make a film and then move on to bigger and better things.

And because of this, audiences and filmmakers alike seemed to quickly lose interest. The movement may be dead, but it feels like there was still so much untapped potential — so much more that LDS cinema could have produced. The work feels unfinished.

Ironically, I feel similarly about The Work and the Glory series of films. Part III has an even greater focus on the Steed family patriarch, Ben Steed (again played by Sam Hennings) and on the oldest brother, Joshua (Eric Johnson) than the second movie.

Although they are living in Kirtland, he has a good friendship with the prophet Joseph (brought to life in yet another powerful performance by Jonathan Scarfe) and he even participated in the Zion's Camp march, Ben still has not decided to be baptized into the growing Mormon Church. And all is not well in Kirtland, as rumblings of apostasy are on the horizon, the result of wickedness in the Church associated with the saints' attempt to establish a bank and print their own currency to solve some of the Church's financial woes.

Meanwhile, back in Missouri, Joshua returns from a very profitable trip to Savannah, Georgia, with a beautiful, new wife named Caroline (Meredith Salenger, whom audiences may recognize from her roles in Disney's The Journey of Natty Gann and her various TV roles in shows such as Dawson's Creek and Close to Home) and a new outlook on life that leads him to become a much more honest, contributing member of society than he has been in the past.

However, his newfound stability is threatened with the continuing tensions between Mormons and non-Mormons in Missouri. The newly elected Governor Boggs decides to raise an army to deal with the "Mormon problem," and he wants Joshua to lead it.

In the end — although, of course, I won't go into details — the ongoing issues within the Steed family itself are mostly resolved one way or another by the end of the film. Yet the series of films themselves feels unfinished. Part of this is because of the point in history where the third film ends — just as the last of the saints are moving from Kirtland to Missouri and on the brink of such notable events as the incarceration of Joseph Smith and other church leaders in Liberty Jail and the forced evacuation of the saints from Missouri to the banks of the Mississippi River and the swamp that became Nauvoo.

The depiction of such historical events in the films, especially because of the powerful performances of Scarfe as Joseph Smith and the all-too-short appearance of Andrew Bowen as Brigham Young are even more compelling than the more personal plot lines within the Steed family itself.

And with regard to those events, the films are just getting started, really, when the series comes to its premature end. Just because we know what eventually will happen does not mean that we haven't been caught up in those parts of the story and feel a let-down when we realize that we're not going to be able to enjoy the full journey.

If I have one criticism of the films in general, it would be how slowly the films have progressed through the story. In a way, the way the story is told, this should have been a television miniseries, telecast for hours on a week of consecutive nights, rather than a series of feature films released in the theaters every year or so. By the end of the second film, the story seems to have finally finished the exposition and is just about ready to really get going.

The third film doesn't disappoint. There is plenty of interest for audiences. But if it took two films to tell the backstory, how many films should it take before we truly reach the denouement? There is so much more that could be done, and if the filmmakers were only going to make three films, you kind of wish that they'd picked up the pace.

There must've been some way to effectively tell the story within six hours and really get to a satisfactory conclusion of all of the story elements instead of leaving so many parts hanging — only tying up the most essential of loose ends. In fact, I think the films might have been more compelling if all three had been combined into a single 3-plus hour film (although it is always more difficult getting a longer film into theaters and making it profitable unless your name is Peter Jackson). Certainly, the second film and the third really belong as a single unit, as evidenced by the second film's rather abrupt and slightly confusing ending.

Still, as far as enjoyment for the third film goes, I recommend remedying this by watching the first two films again to keep them fresh in your memory as you watch part three. Director Sterling Van Wagenen has really done an amazing job, once again, in pulling honest, believable performances out of his performers — especially Hennings, who plays the role of a softening Ben Steed with surprisingly genuine feeling.

Like the previous films, the film has a professional look and feel to it that many other LDS cinema attempts have lacked. It's a film well worth seeing. And if you've really enjoyed the series, maybe worth seeing again and again. Because unless the film has a breakthrough at the box office, it will probably be the last of its kind for quite some time.