Sarah, Plain and Tall

Nice little movie about life in the Prairie and about how a young widower can make a new life, and how his two children can relate to a new women coming to their home to "replace" their mother. No clichés (there could have been scores of them), sensitive story, good casting. Never before that movie had I sensed how Kansas and Maine, two states in the same country, can be so far apart, geographically and culturally.

I remember reading the book, Sarah, Plain and Tall, as a small child, probably for school or something. In most cases, movies based on books are usually a let-down, but this movie, in my opinion, was even better than the book itself. It's a wonderful story of a young mail-order bride who travels from her home in Maine to the vast strangeness of undeveloped, prarie-town, Kansas. One of the things I really liked about this movie was that it didn't have any sticky-sweetness that is common in family films. Sarah, the main character, is far from perfect, and there is a constant battle-of-wills between her and Jacob. Probably the biggest conflict in the film, besides the fact that Sarah is extremely homesick, is that Jacob expects Sarah to be like his late wife--who seems to have been a quiet, gentle woman. Sarah is nice, but she is also stubborn and quick to speak her mind. She and Jacob have to come to terms with each other, over and over again. Jacob's character was well-written. He's a man trying to raise his family the best he knows how, but he can't seem to let go of his late wife. He blames himself for her death, and seems almost afraid to let his children remember her. He doesn't have much room in his heart for Sarah, but she barges in anyway, neatly disobeying him and breaking down the walls in his heart. The children were very good as well--Anna struggles with accepting Sarah, and her growing fondness towards her. Calab loves Sarah, simply because he is small and doesn't remember his real mother. I thought the story line was great, as was the actual casting. Glenn Close doesn't usually play such wholesome, family roles, but she actually pulled it off, which proves, of course, that's she's a terrific actress in any role. She was convincing as Sarah, and gave her a little added spice... Christopher Walken, also, was great as the father, who, I think, falls for Sarah without really realizing it. The children, played by Lexi Randell and Christopher Bell, fit snugly into their roles. The whole movie is a very touching family story. I give it ten stars, for a wonderful performance.

This seems to be a minority opinion, but I actually liked the book "Sarah, Plain and Tall" much better than the movie. The book is spare, poetic and lovely. The romance of Jacob and Sarah is in the background, but Anna and Caleb's hopes to have a new mother are almost palpable. The lack of details allows rich play for the imagination, and Patricia MacLachlan is an absolute master at evoking the sights, the sounds, the very texture of the world in which her characters live. When Jacob puts his arm around Sarah for the first time in the book, it is a delightful surprise and it means so much because we are seeing it through the eyes of the children who so very much want Sarah to stay. The movie, by filling in all the gaps, and filling it with conversations which to me, felt too modern for the times, lost a lot of the magic of the story. Glenn Close did a wonderful job of embodying Sarah, but she was a little too adept in her ability to analyze Jacob's lingering grief and anger -- in those days they didn't do as much emotional analysis as we do now, and anyway, how would a spinster who lived with three elderly aunts know about a widower's inability to let go of grief? I think perhaps if I hadn't read the book first and loved it so deeply, I may have liked the movie more than I did. The book was a perfect example of the old writing adage, "show, don't tell," but ironically, the movie did way too much telling and not enough showing.

I can name a half a dozen reasons why I like the movie. The plot is good wholesome plot. This is a movie I can sit my children down and not worry about any bad words. It brings the past to life its like you are there. It shows what true love is all about . When you can go through all different things together and still be in love then you have it going on. You can feel the warmth and kindness Sarah shows toward the children.

If you haven'tseen it then I only have onething tosay RUN Don't WALK to your nearest video store.

Based on Patricia MacLachlan's novel which won the prestigious Newbery Award, given to the author of the year's finest children's book. Jacob, (Walken) a widowed father, still mourning his wife's death, decides to place an advertisement for a new wife, for his own sake and for his two children. Sarah, (Close) a "plain and tall" woman from Maine answers. She promises to stay for a trial period of thirty days to see if she can "maks a difference" for this family. Jacob must come to peace with his wife's death in order to allow Sarah into his life. Sarah must overcome homesickness and learn the ways of prairie life. The chemistry between Walken and Close onscreen is phenomenal. This is a very touching story and the casting is absolutely perfect.