User Reviews

Ann-Margret definitely turns in a very good performance here as a widow living in a gorgeous mansion in the woods. Her eyesight is failing but she has undying memories of her husband who has been gone for 8 years.

The husband's nephew and niece want to get the property to develop it and sell. Sounds like an awfully familiar theme.

Along drops in a drifter whose wife has abandoned him. He comes with his daughter. The drifter is hired by Margret to do chores and of course Tula (Margret) forms an attachment with the child.

There is a social worker who invariably falls for the drifter. When the latter spurns the niece, this adds further fuel to the fire. The nephew and niece make sure to have him beaten up, have his identity thoroughly checked, and threaten the social worker accordingly.

Had they found something real juicy with the drifter involving a court case and eventual exoneration, this would have made for a far more interesting film. Nonetheless, we see Ann-Margret vying for independence and eventually finding a new love in the town doctor.

The happy ending shows that a new family can unite and that the greedy can't always get their way.

I'm not used to seeing a Hallmark movie the makes so much use of two-bit thugs, dangerous threats, and clear corruption in the local government. Since it's Hallmark, you know the sweet elderly lady is going to push through in the end, but in real circumstances with a sheriff like that and his accomplices things would not be won through so easily. As a result, even though the story is very original for Hallmark, I have mixed feelings about it because it is just too hard to swallow.

If you can suspend reality, and I'll admit some of that is required in any Hallmark movie, then it is a very sweet story. It has redemption, and forming of strong bonds. There is a sweet but precocious 10 year old. The villains are mean enough, but perhaps a bit too stereotyped, especially Hunter Tylo and Sean O'Brien. The character of Billie has no originality at all.

Of course, Ann Margaret is the center of the show and brings it all together. Give Shailene Woodley as Cali some credit. So often the child star overplays her role, but in this movie not the (then) future Tris from Divergent.

There are two romance stories going. Because so much of the story is about other things, neither one gets enough screen time to clarify why these couples would jell. Tula's story has 8 years of backstory, so it's not a stretch, but it's hard to see why anyone would fall for Hank. The most endearing relationship of the movie is Cali and Tula and even that relationship gets barely enough screen time.

The climax of the movie is the return of the hero, but why his return saved the day doesn't exactly make sense. There are still a lot of weaknesses there to exploit, one of the biggest of which is that it appears Cali hasn't been in school for a long time if ever and Hank isn't likely to have been much of a home school parent. But I already agreed to suspend reality, so forget I said anything.

I was browsing through what's on the cable TV one morning, looking for something good. I never expected to find such a touching story which I can relate to in many ways. I found "A Place Called Home".

The movie is about an old widow who lost her husband who she calls "Captain". She lives alone by the lake in a beautiful house with roses, a variety of other plants and trees all around her. In the beginning of the movie, you'll get a glimpse of a rare, beautiful blue heron flying across the sky. The scenery in the movie is breathtaking.

The recluse, old lady is called Tula. She has a nephew and niece, both waiting for her to go "lame" or to pass on so they can inherit her entire land and the house to replace it with the so-called "improvement" for the town, namely a golf course and several hot shot hotel or malls. They were these greedy people only caring for money, without caring for what their aunt's feeling. She was already pretty much cut off from the outside world with her tiny "sanctuary" at the old house.

But then one day, a drifter and his daughter came to her doorstep. That's when things started to turned around.

I loved this movie because I could relate to it so much, not just in Tula's character but also in the drifter Henry Ford and his daughter California (Cali).

One line that really struck a chord in me was when Cali said to Tula after an argument with her father (aka Hank). She asked Tula, "Have you ever felt so alone in this world and the person the only family you had doesn't care for you?" I broke down at that, but of course, Hank loves his daughter. Only he has a hard time showing it and that Cali doesn't know.

I love a movie with good endings - this one is no exception. To truly experience the beauty of life's triumphs over utter hopelessness, you're going to have to watch this one: A Place Called Home. :) p.s. I cried, too.

I sought out this movie for two reasons, because I am a giant fan of Ann-Margret, still beautiful in her 60s here, and the young actress Shailene Woodley who we first learned of as a teenager in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager", a TV series. It was fun to see her in a much younger role. She didn't seem to be more than 11 or 12 here, and shows what a fine, natural actress she is.

The story has little subtlety, Ann-Margret is Tula, a widow with a beautiful home on a lake, her eyesight is failing, and her niece and nephew want her property for themselves. They want to turn it into a real estate bonanza. They are wicked, that is never disguised, and much of the story involves their schemes.

Matthew Settle is drifter Hank Ford , with a young daughter, his old car acts up as they are near Tula's home and they end up going to her house to get help. The young daughter is Shailene Woodley as Cali. They never seem to stay in one place for very long, a few days usually, but Tula sees some promise, and has a soft spot for Cali. She offers them the guest house and a modest salary if he will do work around the house and the property. She also sees this as a way to neutralize the niece and nephew, who have by now called in a social worker to evaluate Tula. They hope to have her declared incompetent to live on her own so that they can get her place.

Most of the acting, directing, and cinematography are consistent with a TV movie, adequate but not above ordinary. Still it is a nice little feel-good story, and being filmed in the South Lake Tahoe area, the scenery is beautiful.

SPOILERS: Tula's old sailor husband had died 8 years earlier, and the town doctor had been keeping his eye on Tula, something she was oblivious to. He also had been urging her to see an eye specialist, maybe going blind wasn't necessary. In the end she and he became a couple, she had the eye surgery successfully, and they planned to convert the home to a B & B. Hank Ford took up the doc's offer to re-open an old shop and become the auto mechanic for the town. He and Cali now had a place to call home, and he even seemed to be developing a romance with the social worker. The niece and nephew were removed from Tula's will and she made it clear they were not welcome there.