‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ on Hulu Review: Andrew Garfield Shines in This Gripping Crime Drama

FX’s Under the Banner of Heaven opens in a state of grace. We see the glory of Utah’s natural beauty and the sprawling suburbs that have been built there. We watch as a little girl, dressed up in “Pioneer Day” garb, begs her father, Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield), to lasso her like a calf. He happily acquiesces, gently playing with her and her sister until a phone call shatters their paradise.

The call from the station is informing Detective Pyre that Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her infant daughter Erica have been found brutally murdered in their home. It was a horrific case that rocked 1984 America with its grotesque details and ties to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Brenda and her baby were slain because they dared question the Lafferty brothers’ descent into fundamentalism, a sect of Mormonism fixated on polygamy, tax evasion, and blood atonement. Mainstream Mormon boy scout Jeb Pyre and his “Gentile” partner Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham) are about to rappel into this harrowing world on the hunt for Brenda and Erica’s killers, and through Under the Banner of Heaven, we’re going to join them.

Under the Banner of Heaven is an adaptation of the best-selling Jon Krakauer true crime book of the same name. Krakauer’s book uses the Brenda Wright Lafferty case as a jumping off point for a harrowing deep dive into the darker corners of Mormon history. Brenda was a bright and ambitious Mormon woman from a more “liberal” Idaho family who married into the conservative and powerful Lafferty clan. Her marriage to Allen Lafferty (Billy Howle) coincided with a dark shift in the family’s faith. Allen’s older brothers had begun to research early Mormon texts that highlighted Joseph Smith and Brigham Young’s belief in polygamy. In order to explain how the Laffertys could be so captivated by faith that they would murder their own sister-in-law and niece, Krakauer profiled survivors of polygamist sects, Fundamentalist Mormons, and looked at the real, blood-soaked history of the Mormon church. It’s a shocking read that weaves history and crime into a tapestry of tragedy.

Dustin Lance Black’s adaptation of Krakauer’s book uses Jeb Pyre and Bill Taba as stand-ins for the audience, embarking on the same stomach-churning investigation that confronts the reader. Pyre isn’t just a picture perfect mainstream Mormon, but a man devoted to the women in his life. He worships his dementia-addled mother (Sandra Seacat), leans on his wife Rebecca (Adelaide Clemens) in moments of doubt, and dotes on his little girls. He is precisely the sort of man who would be the most horrified by the Laffertys’ crime and its roots in early Mormon teachings. Bill Taba, on the other hand, is an ideal outsider in this world. He’s not only a skeptic from a big city, but as a Paiute, his ancestors have a history of being pushed off their land and scapegoated for crimes by the early Mormon settlers. Pyre and Taba’s evolving friendship is one of the best parts of Under the Banner of Heaven. Garfield and Birmingham are incandescent together. Less successful? The awkward ways Black shoehorns key parts of Mormon history into the story.

Because Mormon history is so important to the Lafferty case, interrogation scenes with the Lafferty brothers slide into Sunday school lectures, with Allen Lafferty (more often than not) eking out factoids about Joseph and Emma Smith only when these revelations match with what Pyre and Taba know about the murder case. Sometimes these flashbacks work fine and other times they feel distractingly on the nose (like when Pyre explains what the Haun’s Mill massacre was to Taba). Had these transitions been more natural, Under the Banner of Heaven could have been transcendent. As it is, it’s merely quite good.

What’s great about Under the Banner of Heaven, though, is its cast. Fresh off his second Oscar nomination, Andrew Garfield once again delivers a captivating performance full of soul and vulnerability. Gil Birmingham brings a wry sense of humor to his role, which only seems to exist to mask depths of rage. Wyatt Russell is terrifyingly great as Dan Lafferty, the first of the brothers to heed the siren call of Fundamentalism and Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Brenda as if she’s lit from within by purity. The supporting cast features similarly great turns from actors like Chloe Pirrie, Denise Gough, Seth Numrich and Rory Culkin.

Under the Banner of Heaven turns Krakauer’s sprawling look at the roots and evolution of Fundamentalist Mormonism into a well-made detective drama. It’s not as transcendent as its source material, but it is a gripping watch, full of fantastic performances and horrifying reveals. Andrew Garfield fans will be thrilled, crime junkies will be hooked, and religious sorts might find themselves shaken.

The first two episodes of Under the Banner of Heaven premiere on Hulu on April 28.