Love Comes Softly Movie Review

    (Disclaimer: Despite this being a WCTH blog, this series was written by Janette Oke, and directed and written by Michal Landon Jr. Henceforth I deem it acceptable for this blog. I also just like the series, and want to review these movies. You may now proceed. ;)

    Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a great weekend, and hope you accomplished whatever it was you wanted to do, be it get some chores done, or relax and watch a movie.

    I took a break this past Friday, and made some cupcakes. (Yum!) But now I'm back and writing about a topic that has become more dear to my heart over the past few months.

    One day last year, I finally decided to watch the first Love Comes Softly movie. I had read the book prior, and was curious at how the movie would compare. Also it's a western, and you just gotta love westerns! (IMO anyway.) Anyhow, I then went onto the next movie, and enjoyed it even more then the first, despite the fact that I hadn't read the book. (I'm looking to remedy that very soon!)

    I then, to my dismay, had to wait awhile until the next two movies came on TV. (Turns out I had saved every single movie except those two. :( Anyway to make a long story short I finally got them, and proceeded to binge watch them up to the fifth movie. Now this is the interesting bit. The two movies I thought were next in line hadn't come on TV and so I thought my binging was done for awhile. Yet I saw this other movie in my selection, and wasn't sure which it was. So I did some research.

    On Hallmark's website they supposedly list the movies in order from first to last. HOWEVER it turns out that they missed the sixth movie, Love's Unfolding Dream, in this list, and so I discovered that I had yet another movie to watch. (YAY!) This was very exciting to me, as I had wanted to continue that particular story line. (The next two movies focus on someone else, but more on that another time.)

    So that's my journey with Love Comes Softly thus far. I'm hoping the last two movies I haven't seen will come on soon, but I've very much enjoy watching this line of movies, and truly wish they were still making more. 

    And now onto my review for the first movie, Love Comes Softly!

    (By the way, if you haven't seen the movies or read the books, I highly recommend that you stop reading this, and go watch them first. Or better yet, read the books, and then watch the movies. And then of course come back and keep reading :D

    (SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE MOVIE AND THE BOOK!!!)

Love Comes Softly

    Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. Sound of Music reference anyone?

    The story itself is a very interesting one, and one that would definitely make me want to watch it regardless of who was in it or who wrote it. I'm kinda a sucker for the "marriage of convenience" story line. Also, as I said earlier, I had read the book prior to seeing the movie and was curious how they'd portray the characters and the story. 

    In a nutshell, I enjoyed the movie. Not everything was the same as the book. As a matter of fact a LOT of stuff was different, but I still enjoyed it. The story was a more slow one, but it kinda needed to be. Marty went through so much just in the first quarter of the movie, and it allowed us to process all of the changes and grief she was going through. The ending was also very different then the book as (SPOILER) Missie is supposed to get sick, and Marty never gets on the wagon to leave. I, however, love the romantic drama, and so I'm good with it.

Characters

    As can be expected the characters weren't exactly as I imagined them, but are they ever really? 

    Marty had some of that spunk and fire that she had in the book, including the use of her using a not so bad cuss word, "dadblameit." (Although I believe that it was "dadburnit" in the book.) Yet, under that fire she has a tender love for the people she cares about, and showed it when she made the dress for Missie.

    Clark was just so sweet. Don't you wish you had someone like that as your neighbor? He was always so gentle, kind, and patient. He never lost his faith, even when he thought he'd lost the woman he loved. He was just this quiet man of God, who loved and trusted his Lord and Savior.

    Missie's age was the biggest difference in this movie compared to the books, as she was supposed to be only a year or two old. But I'll tell you what, that little girl (Skye McCole Bartusiak) knows how to do her job right. The tears, oh my the tears... As fiery as she got with Marty, you totally had to have sympathy for the poor grieving girl. The scene with her picking out the pink dress for her deceased mother, and laying it on the bed... Total tear jerker. And you can't help laughing at her antics. I mean, she totally had to enjoy smashing those tomatoes over Marty's head. (Just not smelling that skunk smell...)

Scenery

    The set was good for this movie. Nothing was super polished or perfect which is the way it ought to be. The house was just a simple two roomed, rugged prairie house, as was the furniture. Again, the land around them was appropriate  to their situation. Even the western town wasn't all painted up and looking brand spanking new.
    I think it sounds fun to live back in those times, although with the amount of work they did it would be grueling compared to the conveniences we have today. I mean, we don't even have to leave our houses to get our groceries, while they had to go through all the trouble of hitching up horses to a wagon. And then with all the sickness, bandits, shootings, and deaths...yeah maybe I should think again. Still sounds fun in my head though.

 

Chemistry

    I'm not rating Marty and Clark's chemistry on a Jack and Elizabeth level, but they definitely worked together, and were sweet. They're quite the combo with Marty's fiery temper and Clark's quiet demeanor, but they both have this sweetness in them and fell pretty hard for each other.
    It was sad for Marty towards the end. She finally realized that she'd fallen in love with this man, and wrote a letter telling him to ask her to stay. Then in true Hallmark fashion the letter gets misplaced, and Clark never sees it. Meanwhile poor Marty is just standing there in the kitchen, waiting for this man to come over and say that he loves her too. (Puts hand to face. The drama.)
    But it all worked out to have that big romantic ending! (YAY!)

    P.S. Please tell me you laughed when Clark pretty much knocked himself out, after finding Marty taking a bath! Lol!

Plot

    As I said before, I'm a sucker for this kind of a story so I'm good with the plot. It was fun, sweet, and heartfelt, with more then a few tears shed. If I have any real complaints it would be about the character Sarah Graham. I just didn't see her quite like that. I envisioned her more warm, and loving, and not so tough. They also removed the whole story line with her daughter becoming pregnant out of wedlock, but maybe that was for the best. It's a bit much for a family friendly movie, although Janette Oke handled it pretty well, and cleanly in the book. (If you don't know what story line I'm referring to, you can find it towards the end of the book.)

    Anyhow, the story was slow and sweet. I do think that they could have shown Clark have more of an emotional struggle with remarrying after his wife died, but oh well. I like it anyway, even though the story wasn't exactly like the book. In fact there were some things I'm glad they added. (And removed.)


    In the end, I definitely enjoyed it. However, I enjoyed the next movie even more, but you'll just have to wait until next week to find out what I think! Let me know what you guys thought, though, and I'll see you Friday with some fun WCTH behind the scene pics from Season 7 and more!

    Thanks so much for reading! Feel free to drop a comment below, or on my Twitter page! (Blog comments will be answered via email.) God Bless!


    P.S. Season 7 is quickly approaching! Feel free to stop by my shop to get some WCTH inspired merch in time for the premiere! Click here to take a look!