Hidden Places
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Movie Reviews of Hidden Places
Movie Review: excellent movie for families
Summary: 5 Stars
this was good family movie and will watch it again
excellent actors
appreciat Jason Gedrick always
I had seen it so bought it
chfancier
Movie Review: Good Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had seen this movie on TV before I bought it so I knew it was good. It's a good clean movie that is great for the whole family. I loved it!Movie Review: Fabulous
Summary: 5 Stars
Fabulous film. Full of excitement. Keeps you wanting more. Great ending. The actors really do a great job in this film.Movie Review: If you're down with good old-fashioned family movies...
Summary: 4 Stars
Now and then, it's okay to pause in that quest to be ever hip; it's okay to take a breath and clamp down on contemporary cynicism, and to let out the inner romantic. So curl up with your loved ones and see this one, do, if you're in the mood for a sentimental, good old-fashioned slice of Americana. The mild heads-up is that HIDDEN PLACES offers no twisty topsy-turvy plot, no "Hey, notice me!" performances by anyone in the cast, or gimmicky special effects, or trendy innovative camera shots. HIDDEN PLACES, boiled down, is simply a warm and watchable made-for-television movie, structured on the bedrock of professional acting and solid narrative. The bonus is that it's also a period piece.
Set in the backdrop of 1930s California, deep in the Depression era, this Hallmark Channel piece tells of a young widow named Eliza (Sydney Penny) who struggles to keep her home and her as yet unharvested orange orchard. But a death in the family devastates Eliza and her two little children and a looming debilitating mortgage payment may just be the final nail in the coffin. But, then, unlikely aid arrives in the shape of a grief-stricken hobo.
Who isn't a sap for hardluck stories? The plot to HIDDEN PLACES won't surprise anyone, but the cast still makes it work, and beautifully. Sydney Penny simply looks radiant and she offers up an intimate, heartfelt performance; I wouldn't mind at all seeing her in more films, if she can just sneak away from her soap opera gig. Jason Gedrick is low key but effective as Gabriel Harper, the down-and-out WWI veteran now riding the rails but who sticks around long enough to lend a hand. And with these two leads looking the way they look and with that bit of spark between them, you can probably figure out how the rest of the story unfolds. The supporting cast is first rate, including the two kid actors and especially Shirley Jones, who plays the unconventional Aunt Batty. Aunt Batty, besides providing moral support for and dispensing a series of practical advice to Eliza, proves to be the catalyst to bringing Eliza and Gabe together. And it's always neat to see Mrs. Partridge.
You'll have to overlook the cliche about the evil banking institution, of course. That's pretty much par for the course in films like this. HIDDEN PLACES is a lovely little gem, and one you can spend happily watching with your children and your parents. Even though the film takes place decades and decades after the frontier and settler days, it still hearkens to that strong can-do pioneer spirit. The movie speaks of putting in that good sweat and perseverance and harboring compassion and a measure of trust for those not so lucky as you. All this is old-fashioned stuff, and tried and true, but certainly these messages haven't lost any of their timeliness. And I'm thinking, we should maybe thank Hallmark Channel for safeguarding and nourishing its tiny corner of wholesome.
Movie Review: Lacks soul!
Summary: 4 Stars
The casting is wonderful, even the secondary characters though it seems to me the children might have to be a little darker to resemble their mother but that really is a non issue I suppose. The photography and location are fabulous. What I really wonder is if the producers even read Ms Austin's book. Don't get me wrong, I don't hold them to the letter of the book but I would think the book was chosen for it's richness, the movie totally eliminates the depth which sets the book apart in the first place. This is a book about a woman and her children who have fallen on hard times during the depression, a drifter and their Aunt Batty. (Who can not like Shirley Jones as Aunt Batty but!!!!!) The book is called Hidden Places, it is about people who are wounded ,broken shells because of the "loved ones" in their lives who abuse, torment, devalue and reject them. Aunt Batty is so because she has been til the onset of the book somewhat a recluse, a nobody but she is really aloving, albeit eccentric individual with hurts and a past of her own. She lives life to the full and loves to the full. To totally leave out this diminsion of the book is in my opinion to leave out what sets it apart as a fine book and leaves the movie therefore a little flat and lifeless.