Bonneville, a movie filmed in Utah, opens this weekend offering something extraordinary — Mormon characters who are not creepy, sanctimounious, polygamous or, even, overly earnest.

Matt Zoller Seitz of the NYTimes give Bonneville a positive review as "Thelma and Louise in first gear." Widow Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) and her two best friends take to the road in a '66 convertible with an urn of ashes.

As it happens, Carol, Margene, Arvilla and many other major characters are devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The film’s screenwriter, Daniel D. Davis, and its director, Christopher N. Rowley, treat their characters’ faith as a given — as merely one characteristic among many. It’s the Mormon flip side of a typical Hollywood movie set in a world in which no one ever mentions God, prays or enters a house of worship. The movie’s no-fuss treatment of religion is as deft as it is unexpected.

When a hunky hitchhiker and the women separate, one offers him her Book of Mormon. He refuses it. He already has two.

For the local take, read the Trib's Sean Means' review here, or the DNews' Jeff Vice's here.