The Lost Valentine

"Isn't there supposed to be magic?"

Caroline Thomas, played by Betty White, was a twenty year old WWII war widow who was left pregnant and alone. Every year for 40 plus years she has been going to the train station on Valentine's Day just in case her husband came home.

She knew her husband Neal since grade-school but they lost touch and weren't reunited until 1942, while Caroline was working for the USO and Neal was a Navy pilot.

"One thing people learned from the war was not to waste time."-Caroline.

I love the time period and I loved the storyline. Betty White put in a fantastic performance and she was well supported by the fellow cast including Jennifer Love-Hewitt.

After several months of sitting in my DVR, I finally decided to watch this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movie that stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty White. Ms. White is Caroline Thomas, an elderly woman who-despite her Navy husband declared missing since World War II-still waits for him to return at the Union Station after about 60 years. Ms. Hewitt plays a reporter named Susan Allison assigned to cover her story. I'll stop there and just say how excellent Ms. White is in her performance. It's probably because of her that I found myself crying several times during the film. Ms. Hewitt, who's also an executive producer, isn't too bad on her end though sometimes I think her character can get a little annoying. Still, she holds her own when she's with Ms. White. I also loved the actors that played Caroline as a young woman and her husband Neil. And Sean Faris is okay as Ms. White's grandson and potential love interest for Ms. Hewitt. And dig the vintage music from the likes of The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and Louis Armstrong! All in all, a nearly excellent picture presented by the producers of "Hallmark Hall of Fame". So on that note, I highly recommend The Lost Valentine. P.S. Was interested enough to watch the Hallmark commercials-both classic and current-spread throughout especially the one from 1967.

Hallmark Movies have long been synonymous with Tear Jerkers and sometimes multiple tissues required.

This movie is no exception. Betty White stars as a young mother to be whose husband goes off to war as a pilot and becomes missing in action. Jennifer Love Hewitt is a news reporter wanting to do a story about the lost love and hopes to help find out exactly what happened to the missing pilot. The plot also features an absent boyfriend and grandson as potential new love interest.

Good movie - worth a view!

On Valentine's Day 2010, Caroline Thomas visits Union Station for the 65th time, hoping her husband Neil will return. The friendly conductor says she's been on time every year for the 25 years he has worked there.

Susan is a reporter for the TV news magazine "American Diary", and she is tired of stories that she does not consider meaningful. Still, she gets sent to do an interview with Caroline, which she considers more of the same. She's about to find out this is the best story she has ever done, and one of her show's best stories as well.

Andrew, whose job involves lots of travel, proposes to Susan in front of their friends, but Susan rejects him because the proposal was not romantic enough--and not done in private. Andrew goes off on his latest trip.

Susan and her crew meet Caroline, who is reluctant to do an interview at first. Caroline is persuaded when Susan claims to know her grandson Lucas, a physical therapist who she met once. Lucas helps talk his grandmother into doing the interview, and it becomes clear that Lucas may be a better match for Susan than Andrew.

Through flashbacks narrated by Caroline, we learn that Caroline and Neil met but did not have a relationship at first, but then they became reacquainted after Neil became a Navy pilot in World War II. At the time, Neil was not part of the fighting, and he and Caroline married and moved into a rundown house which they fixed up (and they must have done a good job because Caroline still lives there). Then, after Caroline was already pregnant, Neil decided he had to join the war. In one of the first flashbacks we see Neil getting on the train and Caroline handing him a handmade heart--a very emotional scene. One wonders if this couple will ever be able to separate.

During the war, Caroline receives numerous letters from Neil, but she occasionally sees the Western Union man delivering bad news to her neighbors. And then one day it's her turn.

But missing does not mean dead. Susan and Caroline become good friends, and Susan has become quite fond of Lucas as he has helped her with back problems. And she really wants to find the conclusion to the story. There are clues as to what may have happened to Neil to keep him from coming back.

Meanwhile, though Susan and Andrew are not getting along, Andrew has connections in the Phillipines, where Neil was last seen. The investigation uncovers a wonderful story, which is well-done, though I shouldn't give away too many details.

The final scenes prove a worthy tribute to our men (and women) in uniform, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Betty White gives the best performance of all, and I expect to hear about her when Emmy nominations are announced. Although she is best known for comedy, she delivers a full range of emotion, sometimes demonstrating her comic abilities but also achieving fine results with drama. Yes, there is heartbreak, but it's not all bad.

Jennifer Love Hewitt does a good job here, though I have to say her scenes with Andrew seemed more like a Canadian Lifetime TV-movie than a Hallmark Hall of Fame. She and Sean Faris have much more appeal, and even give us some laughs in a movie that really needs them.

Billy Magnussen and Meghann Fahy both do a good job as the leading cast members from World War II. They too have a couple of scenes with some laughs, but they mostly deliver real drama.

I really liked the World War II music in the flashbacks. Mostly, though, these scenes had the pleasant orchestra music that seems almost boring by comparison to the high-energy jazz from wartime.

It was a perfect story for Valentine's Day, even if it aired two weeks early.

I had always thought of Betty White as a comedienne, and an excellent one. But it turns out that she can also do drama, and here she delivers an Emmy-worthy performance. Clearly the World War II era and the story of the Greatest Generation still has a hold on the American psyche, and this story captures that. It's about an American World War II widow named Caroline Thomas, whose veteran husband has been missing since 1943 and is presumed dead, yet she goes to the train station where she last saw him in hopes of welcoming him home. Her story catches the attention of a television docudrama network and they assign crack reporter Jennifer Love Hewitt to cover it. She initially dismisses the assignment, but quickly becomes attached to both the story and to Caroline and her family, especially her handsome grandson Lucas (Sean Faris). However, the story delivers some surprises. The ending, while perhaps far-fetched, is surprising and moving. There are a few unexpected twists to the story and a few which are no surprise at all. Yet even the obvious points don't matter. The entire cast delivers credible performances, but White truly commands the story. The moment when White's character finally tells her husband goodbye is an example of filmmaking at its best. This show is a credit to everyone involved.