North to Home

Not knowing the book, I appreciated this film for nice try - and succes in good measure- to be more than the usual Hallmark.

It is a beautiful film about family, parenthood, future plans and reconciliation with yourself.

Well acted, it reminds, in fair manner, simple, basic truths, offering the vulnerability of characters as honest premise for define the esential importance of support of beloved one .

Three sisters present at their mother 60 years old birthday.

Each of them is front to a choice, from the clash between passion and moral duty, to the birth of child and the desire to comeback at work after a lot time consacred to children. An accident, changing in radical manner their lives is the shadow around anniversary.

But, sure, the end can not be a surprise.

So, little more than nice.

I didn't not like the movie...however, this book was so well rounded. I found the characters stilted in the movie. I know that comes down to timing - there just isn't time to delve into each character like you can in a novel. It was also "hallmarkified" which took away from the characters as well. If I hadn't read the book first I would have enjoyed this much more.

The network Hallmark Movies and Mysteries is where I go, especially during the Christmas season, for the sentimental, the sappy, the tearjerker. I was very disappointed during Christmas of 2021. HMM started out well enough with 2 good movies in that tradition. Not the first week, but early in the season. For me, Christmas 2021 was a bad year. Since probably early November, there hasn't been a truly heartwarming movie on HMM, or for that matter UpTV or GACF. Until now, two weeks after all the Christmas premieres were done and I wasn't expecting it. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing about Christmas in North to Home.

This movie is about family and loss. It's about sisters. There is one romance, but it is definitely not the focal point. Until somewhere past the half way point, it was a very nice movie about a family struggling with loss and guilt and little secrets. There are a few different threads going, but nothing major. Then there is a very nice twist. Maybe there were clues, but I don't remember them. It caught me totally by surprise and that doesn't happen all that often.

The rest of the movie after the twist gets very sentimental and sappy. The good kind. I won't say more about the story.

The acting is good. All of the three sisters were good.

This was a very touching (and realistic) story of the aftermath of a 25 year old tragedy and what happened to the siblings involved. Thoroughly enjoyable and "believable". Sad, joyful, well worth your time.

This was so much better (and more emotional) than I thought it would be. And it was a very different kind of Hallmark movie than the ones that loyal viewers like me are used to seeing. In fact, the only new love story in the movie was the least interesting relationship (I also didn't really like the big reveal in connection with that story).

Instead, like Every Time a Bell Rings ( which starred this movie's multi talented director Ali Liebert), the main focus was the relationship between three sisters. They were played by three very beautiful, talented and compelling actresses (Lyndsy Fonseca, Kimberley Sustad and Erica Durance) and their mother was played by the very reliable Barbara Niven (from Chesapeake Shores) who may be the most beautiful 68 year old woman on the planet.

Lyndsy Fonseca just starred in her first Hallmark movie (Next Stop, Christmas- one of last year's best Hallmark movies) and I'm looking forward to many more from her. Kimberley Sustad was great in Christmas by Starlight with Paul Campbell. And Erica Durance was, for me, the best thing about Open By Christmas and I really wish Hallmark would put her in her own movie.. They were all wonderful here.

The relationships between between the two married sisters and their husbands was also portrayed as very healthy with a nice approach to the home/career conflict that Beth was experiencing. I could quibble about Hallmark's ongoing refusal to acknowledge the lack of daylight in Alaska during the winter (they'd be in the dark during that 7am hike), and Beth's overreaction to the girls getting cookie dough on their faces, but Hallmark movies don't get much better than this.