Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

TheBlueHairedLawyer Sarah is a rather average and supposedly boring woman who comes to look after the children of a man whose wife died giving birth.At first glance it isn't much, but I read the book years ago and loved it so I figured I'd check out the movie. Sarah, despite being plain, is brave, caring, loves animals and becomes the mother the family never had. The acting was great and there were even some sad and suspenseful scenes. I'm not a big fan of movies taking place in the 1800's but this one was excellent, I'm surprised it doesn't have many reviews. If you ever see it for sale, don't pass it, up, and check out the short novel as well! This is surprisingly a very good movie.

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.

pdolla2 Glenn Close was very good in this well-done soap. But,let's face it, children are not really such huggable little angels as these two are all the time. It was a foregone conclusion, of course, that the Walken and Close characters would be subjected to the basic melodramatic plot: they would encounter at least one problem, resolve it, and live happily ever after. Was it really necessary to have all the people (as well as one cat and one dog) be so unrealistically good-hearted and lovable? The movie would have been much better if there had been an attempt to go deeper than warm-hearted bromides and clichés. The depiction of life as it really was at the time would have been much more interesting.

menaka Sarah,Plain and Tall was a great pleasure to watch,it was a simple story that was told,just as it should have been,simply.Sarah,almost a mailorder bride,comes to live with a widower and his two young children on the prairie and her life never is the same again.The story revolves around friendships formed,ideals changed and above all the importance of family.No character is a stereotype they are realistic people with their own shortcomings but are essentially good human beings with morals and integrity.Glenn Close and Christopher Walkin bring so many truths to their characters and the chemistry between them is real and heartfelt.A very special movie,great to watch with the family!