Hidden Places

Once again Hallmark brings us another good and wholesome movie into our living rooms.

This story is about faith, hard work and determination during their difficulties and trials times that seem to be impossible to turn it around for better, especially during the great depression with a family struggling to keep their farm and home from being foreclosed. Shirly Jones plays Aunt Betty who has strong faith in God to get them through this trial period.

This story reminds me of "Run the Wild Fields" but the ending is different. Great story!

It is refreshing to watch a movie that shows women working with men, rather than women proving to men that they can do everything by themselves.

It takes strength to ask for help or receive help when life gets hard; it also takes strength to have faith that life will get better when living through hard times.

This movie is a comforting reminder that life has ups and downs, and that life can get better with faith, hard work, and working together.

I did a search on romance/drama movies and this was on the Hallmark channel. I've always liked Jason Gedrick (since Heavenly Kid :), so I figured I'd curl up Saturday night and watch (without much thought of getting enthralled in the story). I didn't realize I would enjoy it so much!!!! I remember Sydney Penny as the new Gidget and have always liked her, too. This is not a movie to critique writing styles, direction, etc. I usually enjoy movies that people criticize because movies are meant to be enjoyed - if you don't like it, deal with it and realize that just because you don't like it, doesn't mean everyone agrees with you. My suggestion about "Hidden Places" - Just watch the movie and get lost in the pain and joy that Eliza and her family go through and smile at the ending (you'll be able to even if you're crying tears of happiness :)

Hidden Places is a nice film about a young mother of two whose husband has died, she moves her family back to her father in laws orchard in the 1930s. The father in law dies leaving the family with a mortgage payment and other hardships. A young handsome world war one veteran drifter comes to town and helps the family out, this is a quaint and heartwarming story about hard times and how the salt of the earth survived the depression. Good cinematography and scenery. The dialog struggled some in places, but the experienced cast did a wonderful job making the characters as believable as possible in a film whose era has few living members left. A good movie about overcoming tragedy and hardship for the entire family.

Having read the book first, several times as a matter of fact because it was so very good!!!, I was truly let down by the movie. The movie was no where close to the book. The book lets you get to know each character in such an intimate way, whereas the movie jumps into the plot to quickly with no "hidden places". Gee they didn't have her have the right amount of kids, or the right orchard (apples not oranges). They didn't speak about the hidden past of the Wyatt family(Batty, Lydia, Matthew, Frank etc) and Eliza's (circus family, how she hooked Sam etc) No suspense or anything. Just pure lameness. One should be ashamed to put out such a pathetic rendition of and absolutely wonderful book. The whole purpose of the book was to help one see how God can taken so many broken lives and work it all out despite so much pain and hurt and deception. I hope Lynn Austin did not watch the movie, what a let down.