Loves Up the Duff
I've watched a few of the made for TV movies which have been adapted from Janette Oke's novels and they are what I would call an acquired taste. Here we have tales of romance, faith and women empowerment set in the West, not the Wild West, but a western town where bad guys are a rarity. Basically we have wholesome little dramas with a quaintness that will appeal to those looking for some innocent entertainment. Now as to "Love Finds a Home" well if you have seen the previous movies it is a continuation, of style and characters delivering the same sort of heart-warming movie with a message that the previous movies were. But the good news is that whilst a little bit of knowledge will help you make sense of how characters relate to each other you can watch "Love Finds a Home" without having seen the previous movies.
With her husband having to go away on business, heavily pregnant Annie (Haylie Duff - A Nanny's Secret) decides to go to Sikestown to stay with her friend Dr. Belinda (Sarah Jones), husband Lee (Jordan Bridges) and their adopted daughter Lillian (Courtney Halverson). But whilst there Annie starts to have complications and when her mother-in-law Mary (Patty Duke - Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door), an old fashioned midwife, shows up there is tension between Belinda's preference for modern medicine and Mary's old fashioned home remedy style nursing. Also causing issues is Lee's new assistant Joshua (Michael Trevino) as he has taken a shine to Lillian and Lee being the over protective father is not happy.
To say that "Love Finds a Home" is obvious is a bit of a lie as we have several stories going on which actually feel like they are repeats of stories which happened in previous movies in the series. So you have young Joshua who arrives to be Lee's assistant at the Blacksmiths and finds himself falling for his daughter Lillian and then dealing with Lee being over protective. We also have Lillian being a fiercely proud young woman who is vocal in her support of women having careers and is adverse to old fashioned thoughts that women should be in the home. And of course this leads to some romance which also delivers some highly telegraphed drama; the minute we see Joshua and Lillian have a picnic in the entrance to an abandoned mine you know what is going to come later on.
But the real story of "Love Finds a Home" is really a battle of new versus old as we have Annie caught in the middle between her friend Belinda a trained Doctor and her mother-in-law Mary, a midwife who uses old remedies. These two typically don't get on as they clash over how they should care for Annie who is having a troubled pregnancy. And it won't come as a surprise that eventually the war between these two dies as they come to appreciate the skill each other has. In fact there are absolutely no surprises in this movie with everything either being telegraphed or so obvious that within the first 15 minutes you can predict how everything will play out.
Now the thing about "Love Finds a Home" is that it is so wholesome and quaint that if you don't like corny characters, cheesy dialogue and sets/ costumes which look wrong you shouldn't be watching it. But it is a movie that if you want some clean, wholesome entertainment which has a Christian message about faith then it will be pleasant. It still won't be the most believable of movies and will probably make you groan a bit but it will entertain.
What this all boils down to is that "Love Finds a Home" is a continuation of the previous "Love ..." movies which are adapted from Janette Oke's novels. It is a continuation in characters, styles and wholesomeness which to some will be painfully corny but for others a bit of clean entertainment.
