I’ve always enjoyed pioneer stories. Janette Oke is an author who has
built a career on penning such tales for the Christian market, and
several of her books have been adapted into made-for-TV movies.
Recently, I watched Love’s Unending Legacy, the fifth in a series
of eight Oke telefilms. I’d seen the first, and I’m not sure why I
stuck the fifth in my queue without having seen the three that preceded
it. While the movie mostly works as a stand-alone – and my mom, who had
seen more of the series, filled in some gaps for me – I’d definitely
recommend watching the series in its proper order. There were times when
I did feel as though I was missing something, or at least that certain
scenes would have had more emotional impact if I knew the main character
better.
That main character is Missie LaHaye (Erin Cottrell), a
recently widowed schoolteacher setting out to make a new life for
herself with her young son, her stepmother Marty (Samantha Smith) and
her father Clark (Dale Midkiff). While she doesn’t believe that it is
possible or even desirable for her to ever be truly happy again, she
decides to try to make the best of whatever lies ahead for her. No one
is more surprised than she is when she finds herself opening her home to
a surly teenager named Belinda (Holliston Coleman) who arrives with a
trainload of orphans looking for a place to live. Though Missie treats
Belinda with nothing but kindness, she receives scorn for her efforts.
Is Belinda a hopeless case, or could she be just what Missie needs to
help her learn to live and love again?
Several kinds of love
permeate this story, with bonds of family and romantic threads
interwoven to create a touching tapestry. At the heart of it we have
Marty and Clark, a model of a wholesome, supportive marriage despite
getting off to a rocky and unconventional beginning. Then there’s
Missie’s love for her husband Willie, a sheriff who died tragically in
the line of duty. While it’s a beautiful thing, it also is holding her
back, as any thought of really enjoying life again makes her feel
guilty. She especially bristles at the attentions of Zach Tyler (Victor
Browne), also a sheriff and a truly upstanding guy, much as Belinda
rejects Missie’s overtures, seeing her as an unwanted replacement for
the father she’s sure is coming. Belinda saves her affection for Jacob
(Braeden Lemasters), a fellow orphanage adoptee, who must endure life
with an abusive farmer and his harsh wife, and Missie wonders why this
particular youngster is of such concern to the otherwise standoffish
teenager.
The movie has a made-for-TV feel to it, though that’s
not really a bad thing. It’s the perfect type of movie for the Hallmark
Channel, and with no objectionable content and main characters spanning
three generations, it could make for good family viewing. I suspect that
kids may find parts of it rather dull, but there are several exciting
scenes, not to mention an adorable litter of puppies, to add interest.
Faith comes up in the movie quite a bit, with a compassionate pastor
encouraging the townspeople to take in the orphans and with various
characters struggling with their faith and lack thereof. Those who have
enjoyed Little House on the Prairie or Christy are likely to find Love’s Unending Legacy appealing – particularly if they watch it after the first four movies in the series.
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