Personally Yours

"Personally Yours" was inspired by actual events and it is obvious by the natural and realistic emotions that are embedded throughout the entire movie. Three children of divorced parents strive to overcome obstacles and get their stubborn parents back together. The plot is perfectly balanced between the story-lines of the children and parents, allowing both adults and children to enjoy this production. The cast and crew all did a wonderful job bringing this delightful story to life.

I hope that CBS plays "Personally Yours" again at some point. I know I will look forward to seeing it and I can't recommend it enough to those who missed it the first time!

...but that doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend it. After all, romantic comedy viewers have certain expectations. No one dies, and even the arguments aren't too serious. There are some humorous moments, and Valerie Bertinelli exhibits her usual charm. They don't call her the Julia Roberts of TV for nothing! One downside is that half the time the adults take a back seat to the boringly squeaky-clean kids, allowing pros like Valerie and Donnelly Rhodes (of "Soap"fame) to walk through this vehicle with their eyes closed. The other is that Alaska is touted as the setting for this movie, but you wouldn't know it to look at it. Anyone who's seen our most beautiful U.S. state--even just on television--could tell that it was shot elsewhere: Canada, as usual. (Rhodes and several of the other actors are Canadian.) Once you get past those two limitations, it's smooth sailing. I wouldn't go out of my way to see this, but if it happens to be airing, go ahead and watch it.

In Alaska, Susannah Stanton (Valerie Bertinelli) and Jesse Stanton (Jeffrey Nordling) divorced two years ago. They have two daughters, the teenager Bridget (Brittney Irvin) and the young girl Hannah (Emily Tennant), and a young son, Sam (Michael Welch), and they are good friends. Jesse lives in an isolated ranch, where he receives guests for fishing and tracking, and he depends on his plane to go to the city of Anchorage, where Susannah has a restaurant. They separated because Susannah felt bored and lonely in the ranch. Susannah is dating a lawyer, and their children decide to find a woman for Jesse, sending a letter to a popular magazine called Alaskan Love. He receives a large number of replies, and the children later feel that probably his perfect match is Susannah, and they try to arrange a plan to bring them together. I saw "Wilderness Love" by chance on cable, and what a delightful surprise! The story is adorable, the cast is excellent and the locations are marvelous. I found also amazing the resemblance of Jeffrey Nordling with Michael Douglas. Unfortunately this movie has not been released on VHS or DVD in Brazil, but it is indeed a worthwhile family entertainment. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Um Amor Sem Limites" ("A Love Without Limit")

This is another one of those heartwarming mush films that CBS gets a kick out of showing on Sunday nights. It's an enjoyable family film, with some amusing moments and good performances... especially that little girl! Wow, what an actress! She was more natural and believable than both of her older siblings. If she keeps it up, she could be the next Meryl Streep.

Valerie Bertinelli, although far less annoying here than her character on "Touched by an Angel," is a bit odd, with wild mood swings and unpredictable reactions to things. I didn't like her too much, but that's the only complaint I can think of. On the whole, it's an entertaining feel-good film for all ages.

Valerie Bertinelli is Susannah Stanton, Anchorage Canada restaurant manager and divorced wife of Wilderness Cove Stanton Ranch manager Jesse (Jeffrey Nordling). When the 3 Stanton children – Bridget (Brittney Irvin), Sam (Michael Welch) and Hannah (Emily Tennant) – place an ad in Alaskalove magazine's personals for Jesse, he is swamped with replies, and Susannah faces her unresolved feelings.

Bertinelli's long hair is light brown with blonde and grey streaks, to represent her maturity, since Susannah and Jesse were married for 15 years, she wears it in a 1960's style ponytail, and her wardrobe includes a series of chokers and necklaces. Although her close-ups are mainly unflatteringly, she looks beautiful when standing in profile at sunset. Bertinelli's best scene is where she decides whether to meet Jesse after writing to him as `Sarah', where she expresses her confusion and mixed emotion, and her skill makes Susannah far more likeable and attractive than Nordling, whose technique is too apparent. Her remaining attraction to Jesse is evident in their banter by the way Bertinelli moves closer to him to speak in a conspiratorial superior manner, and we also hear Bertinelli's voice reciting one of `Sarah's letter's as Jesse reads.

The teleplay by Jill Blotevogel focuses on the children's machinations to reunite their parents, which unfortunately director Jeffrey Reiner makes nauseating in tone, with a sub-plot teen romance between Bridget and Derek (Ross Malinger), the grandson of Jesse's co-worker Burt (Donnelly Rhodes). Whether Susannah will return to Jesse is influenced by the active participation she has in his household, staying on after she is no longer required to be there. Jesse's antagonism towards the replies also presents an ugly misogyny, combined with his lack of charm, where the women are presented as pathetic, and Reiner uses a split screen to have Jesse slam the door on 4 different women at once. There is inexplicable timing about the arrival of replies, since Jesse gets bundles of mail on the same day the magazine appears on sale, and even when the line is spoken by a child, `All's fair in love and war' is still a cliché.

Reiner also uses screen wipes, 2 songs by Fisher on the soundtrack, and effective cross-cutting, and as Jesse's temporary girlfriend, Chicago freelance photographer Gina, Andrea Roth makes more of an impression than Susannah's parallel, Boston lawyer Stephen (Andrew Airlie).