Liebe erhellt die Nacht

It's three years after Missie LaHaye lost her husband Willie shot in the line of duty as sheriff. She moves back east to her parents Marty Davis and Clark Davis with her young son Mattie. She takes the teaching job. She adopts bitter orphan Belinda who is the last without a home. Her little brother Jacob had been taken by the Pettises looking for a farm hand. Sheriff Zack Tyler falls for Missie.

The adoption story is compelling. The overall feel is a bit disjointed especially at the beginning. The story improves as it concentrates more on Belinda and the adoption. That's the more dramatic part and a real tear jerker. This is a sincere faith-based movie. It's the fifth in the series. The TV movie does have its charms but also has its limitations.

The fifth one in the Hallmark's 'Love Comes Softly' movie series. Once again the story skips to a couple of years forward. I remembered last time I said the movie was better than what others thought about it, but this time it was not the same case. It was a little letdown, especially in the first half.

After losing the husband, Willie, in the line of duty, Missie and her son Mattie moves back to be near with her parents and to start afresh life. It is a changed town now, less opportunities and more competitive for everything. Missie decline's her parents offer to help her financially. The mother and son rent a small house and settles down with enough earnings to support themselves. Until one day an orphan girl joins them and changes the course of the narration in a new direction.

"I couldn't save Jenny... And you couldn't save Kathy. But we can save Jacob."

The first three films were so good in the series, but I kind of feeling it beginning to decline as the rest of the movies followed, especially since the previous one. It was so wonderful to introduce some interesting characters, but did not capitalised with the fetchable scenes. In this, the second half was so much better than the first. The movie regained its strength because of what came forth. Otherwise, it would have been the worst in the series, but still it is like the least satisfying film by far.

Eliminating the character, Willie, was severely criticised from all the quarters, that mean the movie is not following the book as it should have been. I think being accurate to the book might have brought the justice. But I won't come to any conclusion comparing with both the format since I have not read the book. They might have thought changes could give a new look for those who have read the book, but seems the idea did not clinch well.

The two new characters and their quest were the highlight. Some of the issues it talked were inspired by the real ones. From the societal perspective that was a good thing. Kind of refreshes from the regular perspective of the storytelling like ranch, school, especially deaths. Yep, so far, the series had deaths in each film, but none in this one. There was one prior to this story commence, which was kind of told in a flashback or from recollecting the memory. Anyway, it was a passable product, like as always hoping to get better in the next.

6½/10

What happened to Marty, that she's ill of sorts, in this movie? I really miss Katherine Heigl in this one!

There were so many technical things wrong with this film that made it cringe worthy half the time, but I guess the real question is not so much is it a great film, but what do you want to get out of it?

Love's Unending Legacy is a clean movie with great values and is good for the entire family. There's nothing violent in the movie, no offensive language, there's only kindness and love trying to conquer all. Making it a great film for the entire family.

With that said, there are some serious things that downgraded the quality of the film. Every time they add to the "Love comes softly" movie series, each movie seems to get a little worse in quality. The biggest downfall to the film was the music score. The music overpowered the actors talking and never seemed to stop. Why on earth did there need to be music all the time? In every serious scene the music overpowered the scene making it feel corny. If the music would have been toned down it would have helped greatly.

The past 4 films of the franchise have been following a strong storyline that builds off of its self. But this movie veers a little off course. The story in this film leaves a lot of plot holes as it seems to erase lots people that existed in the previous movies. It would have been easy to explain what happened with a line or two, but instead they went in the direction of "those people do not exist". It's disappointing that they changed actresses for Marty, on top of that there were things that were hinted, but not explained with Clark and Marty leaving plot holes. And to make it even worse they didn't use the original house from the first film for Clark and Marty's ranch.

Further more the love story in the film was random, predictable and put on the back burner. In the second film there was a slow build between Willie and Missy creating this beautiful love story. But in this film there's barely any screen time with Missy and Zach, they felt more like friends than anything else.

I saw first films of series with interest, being grateful for the sweet air of nostalgia, for the fair simplicity, crafted story and acting.

But for Love s Unednding Legacy I was just tired. Maybe, because the thoughts were about first actors , maybe because the story is too predictable and the events are too ...pedagogic. Something seems missing and the message becomes, little by little, boring. But, sure, precise target, noble effort and a story far to be more than version of soap opera .

Maybe, a sort of ingenuity is necessary to love this new parts . Or be familiar with series books .

So, the air of Little house in the Prairie, for me, is lost in this case.