Sarah, Plain and Tall

1991 "It took all of her courage to come and all of her love to stay"
7.3| 1h38m| G| en
Details

Kansas, 1910. Widowed farmer Jacob Witting finds that taking care of both his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult to handle alone. John takes out an ad in a newspaper for a mail-order bride, to which the "plain and tall" Sarah Wheaton answers, soon traveling from Maine to Kansas to become John's wife. Despite the love that grows between Sarah and the family, Sarah finds herself homesick, and she must ultimately choose whether or not to stay.

Director

Producted By

Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions

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Reviews

Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
robslady This seems to be a minority opinion, but I actually liked the book "Sarah, Plain and Tall" much better than the movie. The book is spare, poetic and lovely. The romance of Jacob and Sarah is in the background, but Anna and Caleb's hopes to have a new mother are almost palpable. The lack of details allows rich play for the imagination, and Patricia MacLachlan is an absolute master at evoking the sights, the sounds, the very texture of the world in which her characters live. When Jacob puts his arm around Sarah for the first time in the book, it is a delightful surprise and it means so much because we are seeing it through the eyes of the children who so very much want Sarah to stay. The movie, by filling in all the gaps, and filling it with conversations which to me, felt too modern for the times, lost a lot of the magic of the story. Glenn Close did a wonderful job of embodying Sarah, but she was a little too adept in her ability to analyze Jacob's lingering grief and anger -- in those days they didn't do as much emotional analysis as we do now, and anyway, how would a spinster who lived with three elderly aunts know about a widower's inability to let go of grief? I think perhaps if I hadn't read the book first and loved it so deeply, I may have liked the movie more than I did. The book was a perfect example of the old writing adage, "show, don't tell," but ironically, the movie did way too much telling and not enough showing.
ccthemovieman-1 What a nice movie! In this day-and-age, a movie this low-key and simply nice is refreshing to see. It's almost shocking, especially with Christopher Walken, playing against type. He and Glenn Glose end up being an inspiring romantic couple.What I think I enjoyed best was the wonderful cinematography. With all the beautiful rural scenery, it was pretty to see. It was also nice to see Walken play a role this sedate and a pleasure to see a modern film that featured well-mannered kids, not spoiled brats. In fact, there are no nasty people nor bad language is this film, either. Unlike many films which call themselves "family-oriented," this one truly lives up to that billing. It's not anything super dramatic that will knock your socks off, but a pleasant, very nice low-key 98 minutes to kick back and relax watching.
shark-43 I had always heard good things about this film but never got around to seeing it. My 8 year old daughter loves books on the prairie life and we saw the video at the library so we watched it and we were both so moved, so impressed. A lovely film, wonderfully acted - Walken is a nice surprise - after a long, Hollywood career playing weirdos and sickos - he gives a fully realized, delicate, heartbreaking performance as a widower Kansas farmer. The children stay away from cliched, hammy acting and the whole thing is touching and sweet.
Milhaud Nice little movie about life in the Prairie and about how a young widower can make a new life, and how his two children can relate to a new women coming to their home to "replace" their mother. No clichés (there could have been scores of them), sensitive story, good casting. Never before that movie had I sensed how Kansas and Maine, two states in the same country, can be so far apart, geographically and culturally.