Love Takes Wing (2009) (TV)

Director:

Lou Diamond Phillips

Writers:

Janette Oke (novel)
Rachel Stuhler (teleplay)

Release Date:

4 April 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Cast

June Angela	...	Main Title and Film Soloist
Annalise Basso	...	Lillian
John Bishop	...	John Pine
Yvonne Boismier Phillips	...	Woman with baby
Jordan Bridges	...	Lee Owens
Erin Cottrell	...	Missy Tyler
Haylie Duff	...	Annie Nelson
Patrick Duffy	...	Mayor Evans
Andy Scott Harris	...	Victorian Orphan
Sarah Jones	...	Belinda Simpson
Cloris Leachman	...	Hattie Clarence
Lou Diamond Phillips	...	Ray Russell
Mary-Jessica Pitts	...	Orphan
Kevin Scott Richardson	...	Cyrus Cain
Bonnie Root	...	Ella Pine

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Company:

Larry Levinson Productions

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In Love's Unending Legacy and Love's Unfolding Dream Belinda has brown hair but in Love Takes Wing she is blonde, and hair dye wasn't invented until 1907.

Quotes:

Hattie Clarence: That's why you're such a strong, fine example for her.
Belinda Simpson: I'm not a wonderful example to a ten-year old.
Hattie Clarence: You're a strong woman doctor with a good heart. The very definition of a fine example. Going through a tough time doesn't make you a bad person. Those things define who we become. In the best of times, everyone grows and prospers. But when times are at their worst, we find out what we have in us.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Love Finds a Home (2009) (TV)

Cholera Comes To Sikeston

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.