Love Takes Wing (2009)

Sarah Jones is Dr. Belinda Simpson, fresh out of medical school in Boston, en route to her first job as a physician in Sikeston, Missouri.

Accompanied by good friend Dr. Annie Nelson (Haylie Duff), Belinda steps right into the middle of an epidemic.

Children at the orphanage on the outskirts of town have come down ill; some have died.

And now the sickness is spreading to residents of Sikeston, sparking backlash against the orphans, who are being blamed for the illness.

Led by Ray Russell (Lou Diamond Phillips), a growing number of residents are urging Mayor Maxwell Evans (Patrick Duff) to shut down the orphanage and kick the children out of town.

Belinda fears those ill are suffering from cholera and pleads for time to reverse the tide of the outbreak.

She’ll get assistance from Miss Clarence (Cloris Leachman), who runs the orphanage and two unlikely sources, a sassy and independent orphan named Lillian (Annalise Basso) and local blacksmith Lee Owens (Jordan Bridges).

Review:

This marks the seventh film in the “Love Comes Softly” series, based on the books of Janette Oke, and it has some problems.

So let’s see, at the end of “Love’s Unfolding Dream” (2007), sassy auburn-haired Belinda headed off to Boston to become a doctor with a new husband in tow.

As this film opens, Belinda arrives in Sikeston with blonde hair, a much less exhuberant personality and minus her country accent.

Minus her husband and her faith in God too, because she’s lost the former to tuberculosis.

Oh, and she’s accompanied by another young blonde (Haylie Duff is Hillary’s older sister), forming a duo who look like they’d be right at home on the cover of Cosmo if they swapped their frontier duds for more risque attire.

Beyond that I bristled — and I mean absolutely bristled — when the theme song for this film (“Like a Child”) began. To say that it borrowed heavily from Ennio Morricone’s “Jill’s Theme” from Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) would be an understatement.

Fortunately, Sarah Jones turns in a fine performance. Fortuntely, there’s another fine performance from Annalise Basso as the orphan adopts Belinda as a mother figure.

And, fortunately, director Lou Diamond Phillips cast himself as the villain of the piece, because he brings about 10 times more gusto to the role than any past villain in this series.

I just wished the creators of this series were a little less predictable in their plotting. This is at least the third film in the series with an identical ending.

Directed by:
Lou Diamond Phillips

Cast:
Sarah Jones … Dr. Belinda Simpson
Cloris Leachman … Miss Hattie Clarence
Annalise Basso … Lillian
Jordan Bridges … Lee Owens
Haylie Duff … Dr. Annie Nelson
Patrick Duffy … Mayor Maxwell Evans
Lou Diamond Phillips … Ray Russell
Erin Cottrell … Missie Tyler
Kevin Richardson … Cyrus

Runtime: 88 min.

Memorable lines:

Lillian to new Dr. Belinda Simpson: “We don’t trust strangers aroud here. Kids need someone they know taking care of them.”

Dr. Belinda Simpson: “No one deserves to suffer, Mr. Russell, certainly not innocent children.”
Ray Russell: “Those children aren’t innocent. They come from beggars, liars and thieves.”

Ray Russell to Dr. Belinda Simpson: “Let God help the unfortunates. You’re here to help us.”

Ray Russell: “We need a real doctor. Not some uppity spinster who wants to play pretend.”

Ray Russell: “You sure you want to touch that vermin, Lee. She might infect you too.”

Lee Owens: “You can’t go through life worried about what’s around every corner. You have to let yourself have some joy. Otherwise, what’s the point.”