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"Sons of Perdition" is a flawed documentary — vague, haphazard and, at stretches, dry as its Utah setting. But for sheer uplift, this chronicle of three teenage boys cast out of a fundamentalist Mormon compound has undeniable appeal.
Directed by Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten, the film follows three troubled teens exiled by a Colorado City polygamist community on the Utah/Arizona border.
The sect made headlines in 2005 when its leader, Warren Jeffs, was charged with crimes stemming from his alleged arrangement of a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs was found guilty, but the verdict was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court because of improper jury instructions.
Viewers interested in details of the Jeffs case or life in the compound will be disappointed by "Sons of Perdition," which airs June 2 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network.
Instead, the film focuses on a scrappy, makeshift community of runaway or discarded Mormon teens in St. George, Utah, 45 miles from Colorado City. There, Sam, Joseph and Bruce — undereducated, broke and lacking even the most basic cultural knowledge — bounce from house to house of friends, relatives and do-gooders, with seemingly no assistance from the government or child-welfare agencies.
In one heartbreaking scene, the boys (with the help of the filmmakers) arrange to meet their jittery mothers in a convenience-store parking lot to retrieve birth certificates and Social Security information necessary to attend school.
The filmmakers estimate that as many as 1,000 boys have left the Colorado City sect. Some have been forced out, while others have run away. Male teenagers are often considered expendable in the polygamist world because girls are usually married off to older men, according to the film.
"Sons of Perdition" makes little, if any, attempt to address the state's apparent lack of response. The film does introduce, with little explanation, a sympathetic entrepreneur who, along with his wife, provides temporary housing for the trio.
"Sons of Perdition" fares better as character study than expose, following the boys over the course of what appears to be several years (the film is fuzzy on such details). They struggle in school and menial jobs, and, like the mainstream teens they emulate, drink and party to cope.
Along the way, they attempt to rescue siblings and even mothers from the polygamist world. "Sons of Perdition" tweaks our interest enough to hope they succeed.
"Sons of Perdition" airs June 2 on OWN at 9 p.m. New York time.