LOVE COMES SOFTLY
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Dale Midkiff, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Corbin Bernsen
Original Airdate: 2003
Type: Drama/Romance
When I was fourteen, my mom told me I should read this book... something about a prairie woman who endures hardships and stuff. It sounded like a snorefest to me, but I read it anyway, and I liked it so much I read it three times before picking up any of the sequels (there are many). After devouring those, I began reading other books by the same author. Now I'm a nut for historical fiction. Thanks a lot, Janette Oke.
When I saw they were making a film out of that first book, Love Comes Softly, I was thrilled. I watched the film -- and its sequel -- and then had to go out and buy the DVDs. There's something infectious about this story and these characters. I can't fully explain it. I just love 'em.
The story in the Love Comes Softly movie is pretty simple. Marty Claridge (Katherine Heigl) crosses the country in a wagon with her husband, Aaron. They no sooner arrive at the land of their dreams when Aaron meets his accidental demise. It's going to be winter soon, and Marty has nowhere to go. On the day of her husband's funeral, she is approached by a stranger, a man named Clark Davis (Dale Midkiff.) He offers her a proposal -- he'll give her a roof over her head, if she'll act as a mother to his daughter, Missie. Of course, being that this was eighteen-sixty-whatever, in order to do this, the two of them have to get married. Like right that second, because the minister's going to be leaving that day. So there's Marty, newly widowed, and she's being proposed to. She's just a bit unhappy about it all. But she soon realizes that marrying this strange man is about the only choice she has -- it's either that or spend the winter in her wagon. Which would be a really bad idea since she's currently a few months pregnant.
Marty and Clark get hitched. Marty hates Clark at first, but she's determined to do her duties as a mother to Clark's daughter, Missie (who, in the movie, is eight years old; in the book she's a toddler). Marty spends a few days lost in a sea of grief, but soon begins to function almost-normally. Weeks and months go by, and as time passes, she stops hating Clark and starts to see him and Missie as companions. Spring arrives, and Marty gives birth to her baby boy. She learns to let go of a lot of her anger about Aaron's death. Slowly but surely, she begins to love Clark.
Problem? Well, there's got to be a problem. See, back when Clark asked Marty to be his wife, he also promised that, in the spring, he would pay for her passage back East, if that's what she wanted. Now spring has arrived, and Marty doesn't want to leave. She wants Clark to ask her to stay, but he thinks she wants to leave, and there's this whole big misunderstanding, which eventually leads to an awesome chase on horseback while old west music plays, and it's about the most exhilarating and beautiful scene that there can BE in a TV-movie. Man. Just awesome.
I love the message in this movie -- that love doesn't necessarily happen immediately; that physical attraction may not happen until you've been with a person a long time. Sometimes you have to be patient, and these things'll sneak up on you when you least expect it. And in the end? Oh, it's so worth it.
Love Comes Softly was followed by a sequel, Love's Enduring Promise, which is equally as good. A little more sad, though. But it has Logan Bartholomew, so I don't complain. THIS JUST IN: There's a third movie in the series -- Love's Long Journey, which came out in 2005. Why does it take me so long to learn about these things? *runs to amazon.com* And they've finished making Love's Abiding Joy! WTF!?! Sorry, this is going to be my last AJ article -- I've died.
4/16/2006
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