‘Cult of Love’ Review: Shailene Woodley and Zachary Quinto in Leslye Headland’s Flawed but Compelling Christmas Story

variety.com:

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic “Cult of Love” begins with a tableau so close to perfect that one can see it shattering even before it happens.

The Dahl family have come together to celebrate Christmas, with three of the family’s four grown children and their spouses gathered on the evening of the 24th, playing instruments and singing a liturgical carol, hitting every harmony just right.

It’s a Dahl’s house, all right: The set (courtesy of scenic designer John Lee Beatty) falls just on the right side of good taste in terms of its extravagant evocation of the Christmas spirit, with strings of lights whose twinkle can come to seem like an oppressive glare.

But that comes later: As we begin, the assembled parties seem, mainly, in good cheer, as we’re left to analyze them as they perform their fairly lengthy opening number. (Trip Cullman, who directed the show at Berkeley Repertory Theatre earlier this year, directs once more.) But as the minutes pass, a few fissures seem evident.