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SYNOPSIS:
When wealthy cattleman Jack Mercy dies, he leaves his large
Montana ranch to his three daughters - all half-sisters and
complete strangers to one another. But it turns out this multimillionaire
has one post mortem catch before his fortune can be doled
out. According to his will, the three women will only receive
their inheritance under one condition: they must live together
at the ranch for a full year. The trio expects this forced
family reunion won't be a walk in the park, but they don't
anticipate a saboteur in their presence who is determined
to see them fail. It's up to the three unsuspecting sisters
to deal with their father's mess or kiss their inheritance
goodbye! This is an unforgettable family tale of fortune,
love, mystery and murder.
MOVIE
REVIEW
Nora
Roberts is a best selling author whose movies have been made
into TV movies (watch out for a series of reviews on our humble
website). And with an impressive combined 660 weeks on the
New York Times Bestseller List, over 280 million copies of
her books are in print, including 12 million copies, and novels
published in 35 countries, you can expect offers of movie
adaptations knocking on Roberts’s door.
This story was written in 1996, where Roberts passed the hundred-novel
mark. After the death of their father, three sisters are faced
with a situation where they must live together on his ranch
so that they can inherit the riches left behind. As any good
family drama goes, the sisters try to live together despite
their differences, and along the way, snag some men and prove
to others that they can stay together as a family.
Like many movies based on literary novels, viewers who have
read the original book will tell you that the movie does injustice
to the writing. But because this reviewer doesn’t exactly
read a lot, especially novels of this genre, he finds the
95-minute accessible. It helps that the setting of the picture
is in Montana, where the ranches, nature, wildlife and horses
are pleasing to the eye. The countryside always soothes the
nerves. Girls in cowboy hats and shotguns are a welcoming
sight to this male reviewer too.
Ashley Williams, Charlotte Ross and Diane Ladd play the three
sisters with a comfortable level of chemistry between them.
You may not be familiar with these stars because they their
filmography includes mainly TV shows which you are probably
unfamiliar with. Having said that, this production is meant
to be a TV movie, so do not watch it expecting high production
values with striking cinematography and fancy editing. Watch
it without much expectation and you’d be pleasantly
surprised at how flowing the story is.
Female viewers will applaud this movie for its celebration
of sisterhood, true love and all things mushy. Male viewers,
on the other hand, may be impatiently tapping their feet while
their girlfriends insist on watching it till the minute the
end credits roll. Viewers who have read the book will scoff
at how predictable this Mike Robe-directed movie is. Viewers
who have not will probably be interested to find out why Roberts
is such a successful author and pick up the book to read.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
There are no extra features on this Code 3 DVD, except
for “Trailers” of other Sony releases like The
Jane Austen Book Club and The Water Horse: Legends of the
Deep.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
There
is nothing to complain about the disc’s visual transfer,
and there are English, Portuguese and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1
audio tracks to choose from.
MOVIE
RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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