Personally Yours

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")

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).

From the opening scenery anyone that has lived in alaska could tell it wasn't filmed there and it was also way too obvious that the city was NOT anchorge. ... where the float planes allegedly fly out of anhorage isn't even close to resembling lake hood.either ... even after suspending belief of all those inaccuracies, the story lacks realism ... there are plenty of available women living in the anchorage area so there is little need to advertise for them in a nationwide publication ... this film was more of a fairytale then a romantic comedy .. it angered me about the stupidity.

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.

Finally a great movie about kids that are incredibly wonderful and parents who has the kind of love that we dream about. This movie has enlightened my heart made me laugh and feel so good inside. The actors are so Great they don't have to be billionaires they are great Actors and I hope they stay this way.