Rose Hill

I love the book. Julie Garwood was an amazing author. Whoever made this mockery of her very beautiful story of four boys who moved heaven and earth to save a baby girl they found in the trash, needs to actually read the books. This movie could have been made better. I was so disappointed that I couldn't finish.

...by this story. A very good adaptation of the novel of the same title by Julie Garwood. I resisted seeing the movie after reading the book because I often find that movies adapted from books miss a lot of things; Rose Hill (the movie) had the best essence of the book.

Bravo! to Mr. E. Wallace and Christopher Cain for bringing this great story to life. Jeffrey Sams was perfect and very charming. Jennifer Garner did a great job of portraying Mary Rose. There were a lot more poignant scenes that I can name but do not wish to spoil the movie for those who have not seen it. This definitely goes in my top (TV) movie list.

I enjoy Hallmark Hall-of-Fame movies, and I was interested to see some early work by Jennifer Garner, but this story was weak and underdeveloped. It was heart-warming and clean, if that's what you're looking for, but characters for me were unbelievable and the plot just never developed enough. I found it lacking. And since this site requires 10 lines of type in a comment and that's all I have to say, the rest is just filler. Jennifer Garner needs some good movie roles. I'm crazy about Alias, but I don't want to see her stuck in a kick-butt girl role. I'd like to see her in a good, tragic love story, where there's a little of her "I love Michael Vaughn but can't quite have him because something always gets in the way."

The storyline is heart-warming and the cinematography is beautiful. However, except for Jeffrey Sams, Kristin Griffith, and the young boys, performance of the rest of the cast is rather wooden. More experienced male actors and lead actress would have brought out more sentiment the story deserves. Jennifer Garner is especially miscast as the female lead. Who would believe she was a 19-year girl in the movie ? She looks more like the four brothers' mother ! In my opinion, the story could have expanded on occasions how much the brothers had doted on the little sister Mary Rose and how she repaid them with ingratitude. Good entertainment, nonetheless, for the family on a Saturday night. But don't expect it to be another Lonesome Dove or even Lily Dale.

Rose Hill, which was adapted to screen "loosely" based on Julie Garwood's novel "For the Roses" by Earl Wallace (who also wrote "The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch"), is a good story in itself. If I had not read the book first, I might have enjoyed it a whole lot more. In the movie, the characters' names remained the same as in the book, however their personalities, IQ's and roles in Mary Rose's life were altered greatly.