Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors

This wholesome, made-for-TV movie is based on an emotionally-charged period in the life of 9-year-old Dolly Parton in mid-1950s Tennessee, as little Dolly (Alyvia Alyn Lind) develops a sense of herself as a future star while also growing more sophisticated in her understanding of her sometimes-flawed parents. With a large brood of kids, Dolly's mother Avie (country star Jennifer Nettles) and father Robert (Ricky Schroder), are heads of what appears to be a happy musical family despite regional poverty (Robert raises tobacco, which can be a hit-or-miss crop). When the incredibly fecund Avie is pregnant again and then loses the child, she is plunged into despair and Robert keeps his distance. Avie's father, community preacher Rev. Jake (Gerald McRaney), tries to help, but Robert's stubborn refusal to attend church creates even more barriers. Meanwhile, Dolly is left to navigate the challenges of adult mysteries and her own precociousness, as well as the dynamics of a one-room school where half the kids are angry motherless siblings, and a friendless girl hovers around her. Despite a script that seems to cycle back repeatedly to conversations with Dolly about life lessons, filmmaker Stephen Herek's bio-pic has an appealing, nicely-textured Waltons-like quality, and Nettles is particularly good as the Partons' matriarch. A strong optional purchase. (T. Keogh)