Montana Sky (2007)

The wealthy stock dealer bequeaths his Montana farm to the three daughters provided they would live there together at least for a year.

Director:

Mike Robe

Writers:

April Smith (teleplay), Nora Roberts (novel)

Stars:

Ashley Williams, Charlotte Ross, Diane Ladd

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ashley Williams	...	Willa Mercy
Charlotte Ross	...	Tess Mercy
Diane Ladd	...	Bess
Laura Mennell	...	Lily Mercy
Nathaniel Arcand	...	Adam Wolfchild
Aaron Pearl	...	Nate
Tom Carey	...	Jim
John Corbett	...	Ben McKintock
Scott Heindl	...	Jesse Carne
James Baker	...	Ham
Donovan Workun	...	Pickles
Stephen Hair	...	Ken Campbell
James D. Hopkin	...	Preacher
Heather Lea MacCallum	...	Coroner
James Dugan	...	Vet

Storyline

Cancer-deceased stock trader Jack Mercy's funeral is where his three daughters Willa, who lived on his Montana cattle ranch, shy Lily and Hollywoodian Tess, from different mothers, meet. The notary and neighbor Ben McKintock, who fancies Willa, are to supervise the surprising last will: the girls only inherit 1/3 each of the $24,000,000 estate after cohabiting there for a year. Tess and Munroe County's gentleman sheriff Nate Torrence, a hunky vet, fall in love. So do Lily and Adam Wolfchild, a half-blood ranch-hand, but her abusive husband, ex-con Jesse Carne, stops at nothing to get her back. But is he the one who viciously kills ranch animals and ranch-hand Pickles?

---

Plot Keywords:

ranch | funeral | abusive ex husband | sibling relationship | inheritance | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Romance | Thriller | Western

---

Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nora Roberts: One of the couples dancing in the wedding scene.

---

Goofs

When Willa is talking on the phone to Ben about going to the Fourth of July dance, her cell phone is lit with a blue light. During the conversation, when she says that she has nothing better to do, the blue light is gone. It reappears in the next shot.

---

Quotes

Willa: I told you I don't know how to dance.
Ben: Someone leads, someone follows. We'll figure it out.

User Reviews

Couldn't do it

I wondered how they were going to pack all of Roberts' truly great 'Montana Sky' into two hours. Sad to say, they couldn't.

The basic premise packed three relationships, four, counting the sisters themselves, over a year's time, along with all the mysterious happenings within that period. Only the barest of bones of the story were touched on and even those were rewritten and reworked. Other than the names of the characters, hardly anything, including the events, how they unfolded, and how they were resolved, resembled the original story.

As to the actors: Both Laura Mennell as 'Lila' and Charlotte Ross as 'Tess' fit the concept I had of them, but although Ashely Williams did a wonderful job, I couldn't see her as the 'Willa' I imagined in the book. I so adore John Corbett, he was one of the reasons I looked forward to the movie. He had the perfect personality for 'Ben', though in real life he's a good ten years or more older than the character he portrayed. I guess it made sense that 'Nate's' occupation was changed from lawyer to sheriff and Aaron Pearl was good in the re-scripted role. Nathaniel Arcand played a convincing 'Adam'.

I couldn't help but think as I read 'Montana Sky', then watched it, that the novel would have been much better adapted to a mini-series. It would have allowed the characters and the events to be fleshed out and evolve as they deserved. In comparison, Angels Fall made a much better transition from book to screen in that it didn't have as much ground to cover and could afford to have some parts dropped without losing the essence of the story.

Details

Official Sites:

Lifetime TV

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 February 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Nora Roberts' Montana Sky

Filming Locations:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD4,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lifetime Television, Mandalay Entertainment, Stephanie Germain Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1