Those that enjoy the Janette Oke adaptations on Hallmark will probably enjoy this...
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The Hallmark Channel has made a name for itself by providing entertainment that is especially targeted towards family and female entertainment. They have produced a large number of films that feature relative unknown actors, but are based upon known properties such as novels by known authors and established stories. In recent years, Hallmark has been producing films based upon the Janette Oke "Love Come Softly" series of novels and the 1987 novel "Love´s Unfolding Dream" is the third novel of the series, but the sixth film created by the Hallmark Channel. While the films have been known to stray from the original source material, they have been fairly well received by Hallmark´s viewers.
"Love´s Unfolding Dream" stars Scout Taylor-Compton and Patrick Levis as young adults who have completely different backgrounds and views upon the world. Taylor-Compton portrays Belinda Tyler, a young woman who wants to rebel against the socially unacceptable desire of a female doctor and a woman that was adopted after becoming and orphan and deeply faithful in religion. Levis is Drew Simpson, a young Columbia University educated lawyer from New York who has only come to her small town to fix up and sell a home that formerly belonged to his deceased uncle. While Belinda wants to dedicate her life to helping others that need help, Drew is looking to follow in his fathers successful footsteps as a wealthy lawyer.
Belinda´s father and the town´s sheriff, Zach Tyler (Victor Browne), notifies Belinda one day that the town´s doctor, Micah Jackson (Robert Pine) is looking to hire an assistant. Belinda spends her free time reading medical books and journals and jumps at the opportunity to live part of her dream to be a doctor. Dr. Jackson refuses her at first, but when the wealthy Mrs. Stafford-Smith (Nancy Linehan Charles) suffers a stroke, Dr. Jackson finds that he must employ Belinda to help care for the wealthy woman and help her recover via motion therapy. Belinda struggles with some of the responsibilities of being a doctor, but manages to show her worth to both Dr. Jackson and Mrs. Stafford-Smith as she discusses theology and medicine with the sad old woman, and helps her mend from the stroke.
Drew quickly finds a helpful hand in Belinda´s grandfather Clark (Dale Midkiff), who was a former friend to Drew´s uncle. Clark refuses to accept pay and agrees to work so he can pay off a debt to his old friend that he cannot payback otherwise due to death. Drew and Clark quickly form a friendship and Clark is able to educate the young man more on the virtues of love and life. Drew also employs a good-hearted, but stubborn and strong-willed man named Charles Kent (Paul Ganus) that fears having his wife Sadie (Lori Rom) educated because he feels that she would discover she wants more than what he can provide for her. Drew helps Charles adopt Sadie´s son Caleb (Timmy Deters) and they each teach one another some important life lessons.
"Love´s Unfolding Dream" is a love story and it doesn´t take long to figure out that Drew and Belinda are going to fall in love and help each other become more complete, but the Janette Oke penned story skews the amount of change made towards Drew, as Belinda is portrayed as the stronger and more grounded person, regardless of being the ´weaker sex´ as Drew proclaims her to be early on. The story spends nearly as much time discussing faith and equality as it does building the romantic story between the two young characters. The story doesn´t paint anybody in a necessarily negative light, but it offers heavy-handed arguments as to the merits of having faith and that women are far from being the weaker sex.
It doesn´t take long to figure out the majority of what is going to happen. You know how each character will ultimately relate to one another long before it happens. At 88 minutes, this is a short film and there isn´t a lot of time that needs to pass before what is anticipated to happen actually occurs. There are a few parallel plotlines that develop at a rather nice pace and help build to the final scene where the ´unfolding dream´ becomes reality for Drew and Belinda. This is one of those movies that does not attempt any plot twists or even pretend to go in a direction other than the obvious, but it does a fine enough job moving through the story that it remains at least mildly entertaining.
The strength of the film is the unknown actors and how the characters are portrayed. The entire film is filled with townsfolk that are all good hearted and well meaning folk. There isn´t a bad egg in the whole story once everybody´s nobility is brought to witness. "Love´s Unfolding Dream" does tease that two of the characters may have serious character flaws, but eventually they are let off the hook as the reasoning for their apparent surliness only hides huge hearts. The actors that portray these characters are typically well-cast and while nobody is going to win any awards for their performances, they are all within bounds of what is expected with a Hallmark Channel production.
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