Sarah Plain and Tall & Skylark (And Fictional Fave, Sarah and Jacob)

We have a combination post today! Instead of splitting this post into a movie review and a fictional favorites post, I married them. :) Umm, spoilers throughout. Detailed, spoilers. Just warning you!

Movie Review 

Sarah Plain and Tall and Skylark are "happy place" movies. They can instantly take me to my 'happy place'! Normally, I try and steer clear of terms like heartwarming, sentimental, and feel good because they suggest a corniness and drama that I probably wouldn't enjoy. But, when used in the correct contexts, those are exactly the words I would use to describe these movies.

Tell me if these don't sound positively de-lightful:
(Taken from the back covers of my VHS copies. :))

Sarah Plain and Tall

"In the year 1910, New Englander Sarah Wheaton answers an ad for a mail-order bride placed by Kansas farmer Jacob Witting, a widower rearing two children. She begins a 30 day trial period as their guest and enthusiastically assumes all motherly responsibilities. As the days pass, this lonely, motherless family gradually opens their hearts to Sarah and slowly comes to terms with their painful past. Their lives again become spontaneous and magical. Love and respect replace fear and distrust as they join together as a family."

Skylark

"Two years have passed, and Sarah, the mail-order bride from Maine, is now part of the Witting family. She and Jacob have fallen even more deeply in love, and his two young children have truly become her own. They live a simple but rich life on the Kansas prairie...until a terrible drought ravages the land. They watch helplessly as one by one, their friends and neighbors abandon their farms...but they vow to stay together and fight for their home as a family. When wells run dry and flash fires threaten their very lives, they, too, are finally forced to make a painful decision that will tear them from their home...and from each other. Separated by miles, but bound together by love, they learn that devotion is what makes them family...and that love is even more powerful than nature."

Some of the (MANY) things to love about this movie:

Don't take the 'made by Hallmark label' seriously. Compared to the movies that Hallmark pumps out nowadays...these two films, quality wise, beat them all. Between the story, based on great books, and the acting...there really shouldn't be any competition. Wouldn't be fair. (Sorry Hallmark fans... too cheesy for my tastes.)

The movies work together as an original and a sequel should! No disjointed recasting, weak secondary storylines or things like that.

Sarah. She's very real. She is both brave and vulnerable. Sarah says the wrong thing when she is overtaken by fear and anger just as anybody else. But, along with her weaknesses, Sarah is also a wonderful example of womanhood. Particularly as an example of a woman's divinely given influence in the home. She's also a listener. Sarah will listen to your troubles before she tries to go about solving them such as: Anna and her longing to remember her mother, Caleb's constant stream of questions, Jacob's own struggles to come to terms with his first wife's death. And I love her enthusiasm for life! She will work, but there must also be some play. :)

This next one is bordering if not totally ridiculous. (Because Cordy points out the ridiculous.) They have realistic hair in this movie! I know, rather ridiculous but no less true. There is flyaway hair in this movie that I find strangely satisfying. Heehee.

How Sarah returns laughter to the Witting family.

I love the contrasting scenery. In the first film you get the lovely green of the fields and in Skylark you get lovely ocean shots. It's the best of literally, both worlds. :) The seaside and the prairie. Don't you just love to watch the ripple that goes across the green prairie? (I mean, I love the ocean waves too. :D)

Anna and Caleb have a realistic sibling relationship. While Caleb's questions can often annoy Anna, she is still protective of him as older siblings often are.

Anna's writings. And how she 'spies' on her parents. :)

The aunts. Oh, the aunts! :)

I love the prairie feel to it all! In not just the location but also the dresses and the hats! I am both a hat and a dress person so granted, I am biased. (I wish I had more cute hats...) Oh, I also love how they dressed up for occasions! Say for instants, surprise birthday parties...

**A small word of caution. In the first movie, there is a suspenseful birth scene where both the life of the mother and the child seems threatened. Nothing inappropriate is shown, only some 'blood' splotches on the blanket the baby is wrapped in. In the second film, there is the birthing of a calf. Really, those are the only two things that you might want to know about.**

Jacob and Sarah

"Sometimes, words aren't good enough."

Oh, oh, OH! What is there not to love about these two?!

A thing or two about Sarah and Jacob:

The way Jacob says Sarah's name.

The prairie 'dune'. :D

Sarah's surprise birthday and that dance. I mean, just look at that picture!!

That scene in the moonlight is my favorite scene!! Everything about it is spectacularly wonderful! Particularly, the theme that plays. Like the powerful love that Sarah talks about, Jacob and Sarah's theme has an equally powerful quality. It's almost haunting...but not negatively so. Does that make sense? It stays with you and is not only powerfully sad but amazingly hopeful. It's lovely and I adore it!

Jacob's 'way with words'. Like commenting on Sarah's looks after the first fire scare.

When Jacob and Sarah are reunited in Maine and Sarah is trying to explain what a strange feeling it has been for her to return to a place that she loved so dearly and yet, now, just wasn't the same. It's a completely relatable sentiment. There will always be those places that will become rose-colored in our eyes for many different reasons. But if we are ever returned to the situation, and perhaps separated from the ones we love, it can never be the same.

To wrap up here, this movie is about love and as I have said in a previous post, it's not chick-flick love, but an enduring and empowering love that I truly, have no words to either describe or explain. It's a bonding love between husband and wife and parents and children. Basically, a set of beautiful films!

Yours truly,
Cordy