Autumn Stables

I was surprised by this. My strongest impression is that this movie is more about feelings than story. I'm not a Cindy Busby fan, but she does a good job of making me feel the emotions.

The story starts out like same old same old. Struggling ranch. They spent a fair amount of screen time planting that feeling and the sadness that went with losing part of her. But the trajectory of the story quickly took an unusual turn. The middle was slow, story-wise, but more emotions and some romantic relationship building. The climax and ending were interesting and some more strong emotion beginning with the obligatory misunderstanding which could have been quickly resolved with some listening, but then what fun would that be? I like the touch of Autumn cleaning again and her surroundings while doing it. If you think about it a little, the scene is strongly symbolic of the theme that has been running throughout the movie. The ending was pretty obvious when you saw what Jake saw, but it was nicely done even so.

I thought the chemistry between Busby and McGarry was excellent. I was put off in this aspect by, first, they didn't meet for 20 minutes screentime, and, second, they bashed each other for the next 20. But when the characters settled down, the actors were great together.

The ranch is beautiful. There are some nice scenes of Autumn riding either with or without others. I thought Kevin McGarry trying to act like he had no idea how to ride was funny. And there's some good dialogue sprinkled throughout. Supporting actors were mostly good.

I'm not a huge fan of Cindy Busby but she did okay in this one. She seemed very relaxed in her role compared to others she has done. Kevin McGarry always does a great job with his parts and I enjoy anything he is in. It contains beautiful ranch/pastoral scenery. One negative critique would be the choice of using Western saddles when riding English style and directing someone to mount a horse on the right instead of the left. Someone who owns a horse ranch and teaches riding lessons should be much better versed in such matters. This may seem picky but it would be helpful to have a professional equestrian helping to consult on such matters where horses play such a huge role in the story.

Up Front. Definitely not a Cindy Busby fan, and this is not her worst movie ( that was definitely Marrying Darcy). But for some reason (maybe because her "acting" gets in the way), there is never any real chemistry between her and her co-star/s. This can ruin, or even destroy any believability in a story, or the character she plays- (the same character...always the same). It seems the bigger the role, the screechier the voice and the more unreal "acting" we see on screen. This one was kept subdued, so McGarry and supporting characters carried the weight.

I gave this a seven, as the Director with McGarry as lead kept this one on track. The story stayed on it's predictable path, but well. The scenery and horses were beautiful. All the supporting cast were good in their rolls. The movie definitely had much more potential, but it wasn't that bad.

Love Cindy Busby in other films but found her extremely annoying in most of this one. If someone is buying your house/property you can't dictate what they can and can't do with the property. You should just keep the property if you don't want anyone to change it.

I can't believe I'm the first one writing a so-called review.

I cannot call this a review because it's mostly just based on my feelings.

There are some things I don't love about this movie, but thankfully, there is more to love than not. The two main characters, the supporting characters, including the horses, and the beautiful scenery, more than compensate for the things I didn't love about this TV movie, but definitely do not hate.

I love the relationship between Father-in-law and daughter-in-law. No, they don't have "something" going on between them. Their love for each other is like a love of a parent for his child in purest sense and vice-versa.

I also love how Autumn's extended family looked out for her.

As for Jake, he's really charming, but he just beats around the bush too much.

Of course, conflict was necessary, but...

Oh wait, I said I won't give spoilers, so I won't.

There's magic between CINDY BUSBY and KEVIN MCGARRY, and I could only speak for myself, I think these two were very convincing as Autumn and Jake. They seemed like they were attracted to each other from the moment they met, but of course, the falling in love was gradual, thank goodness for that.

The horses are lovely, and I must agree with Autumn, they are very perceptive.

Oh, speaking of horses there was this thing that bothered me at first, but later on I learned this:

Soldiers would mount up on their horses left sides so that their swords, anchored over their left legs, wouldn't harm their horses' backs. ... Make sure your horse is comfortable with you mounting and dismounting on either side. (source: Horse & Rider---they say mounting on the left is just tradition)

FYI Kevin McGarry's character, Jake, mounted Coco on the right side, while Autumn and Maddie mounted their respective horses from the left that's why I thought of checking if it was perfectly alright.

I never thought to ask before. I just thought it was a given that we should mount on the left. You really learn something new everyday. Better late than never.

Hmm...what else?

Oh, most of the horses used for lessons in any riding school are usually trained, so even it was perfectly fine for Jake not to fall down Coco even if Autumn hardly trained him because Coco is well-trained, and in other words, Coco's an expert in handling newbies.

I better go now or I might give spoilers...I hope the thing about mounting horses and Jake riding a horse would not be considered as such.

Thanks for your time.