Hidden Places (2006) (TV)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Yelena Lanskaya

Writers (WGA):

Robert Tate Miller (teleplay)
Lynn Austin (novel)

Release Date:

28 January 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A drama about a young widow who finds a guardian angel in the form of a hobo who comes to her rural community looking for work.

Plot Keywords:

Orange | Harvest | Prayer | Hobo | Great Depression

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Sydney Penny	...	Eliza
Jason Gedrick	...	Gabe Harper
Shirley Jones	...	Aunt Batty
Logan Arens	...	Luke
Carlie Westerman	...	Becky
Barry Corbin	...	Sheriff
Gene Davis	...	Tom Walker (as Eugene Davis)
Tom Bosley	...	Wakefield
Jane Fleiss	...	Marion Walker
John Diehl	...	Frank
Time Winters	...	Mr. Kornhaus
James Keane	...	Mr. Jennings
Donn Markel	...	Priest (as Don Markel)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA

Company:

Alpine Medien Productions

Quotes:

Gabe Harper: You are worth doing all I can for.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2007) (TV)

One of the most horrid adaptions of a book

When I sat down to watch this film, I was expecting an engaging story, with fascinating characters. Instead, I knew within the first twenty minutes that all I would get is a sappy love story. How could Lynn Austin allow her incredible book to be horribly blasphemed by this movie? It was worse than Ella Enchanted. The whole story was changed. The setting was changed. The characters were changed or, like Eliza's other son, Jimmy, done away with altogether. In fact, the only things that stayed the same were the characters' names and the skeleton plot--a mother fights to save her farm for her children with the help of a hobo and an aunt. I knew that things from the book would have to go. But this--this...thing desecrated everything Lynn Austin wrote. In the book, Frank Wyatt is portrayed as an evil man, with only greed in his heart. He carries on a pretense of religion, but does not know God. Yet in the movie, he is seen as a man who simply does not know how to say "I love you." He is simply rough around the edges. And I could not stand the movie any longer when Luke says, "I miss him." I was like, "How could you miss him? You were starved for love and affection, and he gave you none! He refused to get help for your father Sam, leading to a horrible and painful death by tetanus! And now you say you miss him??!" (In the book, Frank Wyatt collapses and tells Luke to get help, but instead Luke runs away because of his anger toward him for not getting help for his father) Do not bother seeing this movie, I beg you! It will only ruin your mind. Read the book; it is a masterpiece. When you only see the movie, you miss so much that the book has. There is a back story that I sorely missed in the movie. (It involves Aunt Batty's and Frank Wyatt's younger years) You miss the everlasting themes, and the raw emotion that is poured into the book. The book is worth looking at. The movie is not.

P.S. Eliza's real last maiden name is Gerard. In the movie it's Montclair. Come on, it's just a name. Could they not even get that part right? Well, they didn't, and I sorely advise you to avoid this movie like the plague.