Catangro
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Brainsbell
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Melissa Alice
I sat through the whole thing, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. Seeing Megan Follows again after Anne of Green Gables was sort of interesting, but too bad she didn't play a very good character (she leaves her husband). The acting was fine and the part about the boys being bullied was interesting, but I was hoping for a story of redemption as so often comes from Hallmark Hall of Fame. Disappointing. There wasn't much violence or any really bad scenes, but this is not worth the time to watch. I gave it a 2/10.
msmith_programmer
I was completely disappointed by "Plainsong". It was a badly-written screenplay and thoroughly depressing movie from start to finish. Two young boys find a dead lady they're working for, and also get abducted and stripped by drunk high school jocks. These lucky young lads also happen to be mothered by an mentally ill woman, who also, by the way get left at a complete stranger's house to spend the night, only to be abandoned while asleep: nice, real nice. Their Dad's not much better (Aidan Quinn, where has your career gone dude?), he's getting ready to date all of the town skanks before the divorce papers are written. He's also is a crappy teacher, nice touch. Add the pregnant teenager to the mix, a 17 year-old who runs off to Denver with her abusive boyfriend only to get drunked up and puts her unborn child in danger, and this is what passes for family entertainment these days??? I can't believe Hallmark put their name on this load of manure. Look, I like a disturbing tale as much as anybody, but they usually have a plot, and don't have the name "Hallmark" associated with them. My wife and I watch Hallmark movies because they consistently are some of the best family entertainment available on television. Not this movie, not by a long shot. A special guest appearance by William Hung couldn't have butchered this "song" any worse.
Mike Ross
I loved the book and I loved the tv version. Every actor was superb. I skipped the Sopranos to watch this and I'm glad I did. Bravo to everyone associated with it. Aidan Quinn was so right as the dad and Brenda from Six Feet Under was perfect as the girlfriend. The three seniors in the story were best of all, the two ranchers and the old lady who dies. I could not get over how moving they were. Then there were the two little boys. They were real, not at all actor-y. The film managed to convey and America so at variance from the cold place many of us experience. It almost made me want to head west. One last thing: the thuggy teenager was also fine as were his repulsive parents. BUT BEST OF ALL was the writing.
Edgar L. Davis
I happen to come across this gem of a "made-for-T.V.-movie" while vegetating in a hotel room on a business trip. I was pleasantly surprise to see Rachel Griffth in a Hallmark movie. She and Aidan Quinn lent a jolt of electricity to the story that no other actors could. Geoffrey Lewis turned in a helluva a performance in the role of one of the mentally challenged brothers that come to the rescue of a few of the character in the bitter-sweet tale of fractured life in present-day, rural Colorado. America Ferrara has been blessed with the same fierce but sympathetic spark that made Lili Taylor so brilliant in Dogfight. I recommend this movie not just because it is so good and real but because it is the rare 'good' T.V. dramas that the whole family can watch.
