ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

prcsteacher I've seen all four of the movies in this series. Each one strays further and further from the books. This is the worst one yet. My problem is that it does not follow the book it is titled after in any way! The directors and producers should have named it any thing other than "Love's Abiding Joy." The only thing about this movie that remotely resembles the book are the names of some of the characters (Willie, Missie, Henry, Clark, Scottie and Cookie). The names/ages/genders of the children are wrong. The entire story line is no where in the book.I find it a great disservice to Janette Oke, her books and her fans to produce a movie under her title that is not correct in any way. The music is too loud. The actors are not convincing - they lack emotions.If you want a good family movie, this might do. It is clean. Don't watch it, though, if you are hoping for a condensed version of the book. I hope that this will be the last movie from this series, but I doubt it. If there are more movies made, I wish Michael Landon, Jr and others would stick closer to the original plot and story lines. The books are excellent and, if closely followed, would make excellent movies!

litserve I'm concerned that the morality of the film series is gradually slipping away. In Love Comes Softly, the wedding ring was frequently displayed, and there was an incredible sweetness to the presentation of sound values. In this movie, when the evil Doros takes a neighbor for everything he has, the victim replies that he used to be a good preacher, but he isn't anymore. As in, he's gonna deal with Doros violently if necessary. And there's the overwhelming sense that we're supposed to cheer at that. We're supposed to cheer that he's not the good preacher. And that he plans on using violence to solve his problems. Moreoever, the young unmarried couple (Sonny's younger brother and Doros's daughter) take off into the darkness together. That kind of thing wasn't in the first movie. The low-cut dresses on her. This movie uses the fact that the father was evil to encourage us to cheer when his daughter defies him and tells her young forbidden lover that she's been driving her father nuts since she was old enough to tell him what dress she wanted to wear. And it's the *evil* father that wants to send his daughter to a Christian boarding school. The context of his character is supposed to make us ashamed for thinking that's wise. So here, Christian values are couched in an incredibly evil man, and so by association we're against the conservative side of him and we're supposed to think it's okay when she wears low-cut dresses and takes off into the night with the neighbor boy. And of course, there's never any implication that we're supposed to be concerned about any of this. I hope this isn't another subtle, gradual departure from values by throwing us a moral bone in the first movie, and then after gaining our trust, leading us where Hollywood wants the Christian community to go. Unless there's a serious return to Christian values in the next movie, I'm done.

freezinghands I very much looked forward to this movie. Its a good family movie; however, if Michael Landon Jr.'s editing team did a better job of editing, the movie would be much better. Too many scenes out of context. I do hope there is another movie from the series, they're all very good. But, if another one is made, I beg them to take better care at editing. This story was all over the place and didn't seem to have a center. Which is unfortunate because the other movies of the series were great. I enjoy the story of Willie and Missy; they're both great role models. Plus, the romantic side of the viewers always enjoy a good love story.

craymond As a Southern Baptist, it pains me that I must give a below average rating to an overtly Christian movie. There certainly aren't so many that I want to discourage film-makers from a genre that's woefully under-exploited. Still, I must honestly say that "Love's Abiding Joy" is a typically low budget, low key, self-consciously Christian film. The plot is predictable, the acting mediocre (I'm being kind), and the editing atrocious. As a TV movie it might have been slightly above average, but as a feature film it leaves much to be desired. Keep trying guys. You've got to have a movie about about real Christians inside you somewhere. Might I suggest you turn to G. K. Chesterton or C. S. Lewis for some inspiration?