Two female doctors Haylie Duff and Sarah Jones come to Sikeston, Missouri and none too soon. The town is in the grip of an epidemic that appears to have started in the town orphanage. It's soon identified not as a kind of influenza as was thought, but the far more deadly cholera, most common back in a time of less sanitation.
Besides having to battle the usual Victorian prejudices about women in certain male only professions, both women especially Duff have their own demons to battle. Duff in fact is a recent widow who was unable to save her husband despite her medical training. Back two centuries ago, it was common for folks to die a lot younger.
The only real support they get is from the matron of the orphanage, Cloris Leachman and from Jordan Bridges the town blacksmith whom Duff gets romantically involved with. They have a week mayor in Patrick Duffy who wants to do the right thing, but is also mindful he has to go to these folks for votes later on. Sikeston also has a rabble rouser in Lou Diamond Phillips who lost family members and is willing to just throw the sick orphans on the street and out of town.
In addition to being the Grinch of the story, Lou Diamond Phillips also directs Love Takes Wing and gets nice performances from his cast. Particularly effective are the scenes with Haylie Duff and orphan Annalise Basso who bond quite nicely in the story and on the screen.
How do they deal with the epidemic? Well it seems that Johns Hopkins has developed a brand new technique for dealing with dehydration which is how cholera kills. I won't say, but I will say that nowadays it's something taken for granted.
Which shows you that even the most matter of fact and mundane things we have now are things that someone had to think up and bring about. And prove they work.
Love Takes Wing is a nice family film from the Hallmark Channel definitely worth a viewing.
