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Rachel Emmers as 'Holly' - best performance/charcter in a very fine film


Loved the film as a whole. In every way, it is a worthy follow-up to God's Army. It treats the LDS faith with great reverence while at the same time contextualizing it in a very much fallen world, a dangerous and difficult world.

Every storyline is quite strong, and each actor did a solid job, but the storyline that stood out to me as the best by far was that of Holly, and not coincidentally, the performance by Rachel Emmers was the strongest in the film.

The entire slow buildup of Holly, from an element of intrigue at first to a compelling and three-dimensional character, is the film's most compelling through-line. She is instantly sympathetic and becomes more so with every exchange.

Without question, the scene in which Holly relates her story to Farrell (of how, once the truth of her career became known in her home town, her family shunned her and never took her calls, even though she diligently calls them every week), is the most poignant and legitimately moving scene that I have ever seen in any LDS film. Emmers plays the scene perfectly, without a touch of maudlin excess, instead delivering her lines in a fully convincing manner, filled with so much tamped-down pain that one's heart breaks.

Then, the payoff scene in the hospital, when Holly "returns" Farrell's touching assurances of God's love back to him, in words that echo his own, overwhelms the viewer once again. Brilliant writing, and an utterly captivating performance.

I recall that Emmers was also by far the best element in Errand of Angels (so much so that I wish that she'd been cast in the lead). She and Summer Naomi Smith are unquestionably the finest (and most gorgeous) actresses in "Mollywood" cinema, and both happen to be exceptionally gifted at their craft.

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