Four young pickpockets have just avoided capture by the New York police when they discover an abandoned baby girl.
Adam, the oldest, has been itching to head West and become a black cowboy. He decides this would be the perfect time.
The other three — Douglas, Cole and Travis — decide to tag along. And since they’re not sure what to do with the baby girl, they take her with them.
At the train station, having purchased a ticket to Abilene, they pass themselves off as orphans and brothers, making up a story about Adam being adopted.
So West they head, where Adam indeed befriends a black cowboy, who gets them work until they’re old enough to head out on their own.
When that time comes, they’re off to Montana to start their own ranch — named Rose Hill after the baby they took under their care all those years earlier.
Mary Rose (Jennifer Garner) is now a young woman, chafing a bit under the protection of four “brothers,” who have a habit of scaring away male suitors.
Mary Rose seems to attract a lot of those. They include Fergus Carroll, a foreigner who has come to Montana to set up a ranch for European interests, and John Stringer, a handsome galoot with a herd of cattle that has grown to 5,000 while other ranchers lose stock to rustlers.
Mary Rose’s affection for Stringer turns out to be a tragic mistake.
And when she’s finally told the story of how she wound up in Montana, she heads back East on a search for her real family.
Jennifer Garner as Mary Rose, worried when Cole is brought back home wounded in Rose Hill (1997)
David Newsome as John Stringer, the stranger who turns Mary Rose’s head in Rose Hill (1997)
Review:
The plot’s a bit of a big pill to swallow. Four teenage boys who steal for a living decide to take a baby girl West with them?
But swallow it, and you’ll find this to be an entertaining, certainly different film from Hallmark, filled with intriguing subplots and characters.
In fact, this is the very rare occasion where a telefilm might have benefitted from being made as a mini-series instead.
An awful lots goes on in the first 19 years or so of Mary Rose’s life, and that fact that it’s condensed into less than two hours is one of the film’s biggest drawbacks.
Jennifer Garner certainly isn’t a drawback. Twenty-four when the film was made and still pursuing the stardom she’d eventually find, she’s a delight as the film’s focus.
It helps that her characters isn’t too saintly. Acting spoiled and a tad uppity at one point, she’s slapped by another female in the film and scolded for her lack of appreciation of the life she’s been provided by four men who owed her nothing.
Jeffrey D. Sams as Adam Clayborne, ready to confront troublemakers from Texas in Rose Hill (1997)
Tristan Tait as Travis Clayborne, one of the four brothers determined to protect Mary Rose in Rose Hill (1997)
Directed by:
Christopher Cain
Cast:
Jennifer Garner … Mary Rose Clayborne
Jeffrey D. Sams … Adam Clayborne
Zak Orth … Douglas Clayborne
Justin Chambers … Cole Clayborne
Tristan Tait … Travis Clayborne
David Newsome … John Stringer
Casey Siemaszko … Fergus Carroll
Stuart Wilson … Richard Elliott
Kristin Griffith … Annie
Courtney Chase … Young Mary Rose
Michael Alexander Jackson … Adam at 15
David Klein … Douglas at 13
Kevin Zegers … Cole at 13
Blair Slater … Travis at 11
Jim Brooks … Isom
Vanya Rose … Maude
David Aaron Baker … Harrison Elliot
Vera Farmiga … Emily Elliot
Peggy Ann Adams … Ruth Pruitt
Carmen Moore … Shining Water
Runtime: 99 min.
Justin Chambers as Cole Clayborne, explaining his Texas Ranger days to Mary Rose in Rose Hill (1997)
Zak Orth as Douglas Clayborne, coming to his brother’s defense in Rose Hill (1997)
Memorable lines:
Travis Clayborne, having arrived in Kansas: “You mean we’re going to go straight? Work real jobs?”
Adam Clayborne: “You see all those folks wearing guns? You want to life a wallet off of one of them?”
Fergus Carroll, introducing himself: “Since we’re going to be neighbors, my name is Fergus.”
Mary Rose: “Better last your first winter before you call yourself a neighbor, Mr. Carroll.”
Annie, when Mary Rose balks at the arrival of Shining Water: “Now a little happiness is hard enough to come by in this world. You’d begrudge it to someone who hasn’t done a thing in his life but love and care for you. You’re a spoiled thing, Mary Rose.”
John Stringer, cozying up to Mary Rose at a dance: “Wonder how long it’ll take them to miss you?”
Mary Rose: “My brothers?”
Stringer nods.
Mary Rose: “Don’t mind them. I don’t. They just haven’t faced the fact that I’m not a little girl anymore. Don’t you agree?”
Casey Siemaszko as Fergus Carroll, the Englishman who shows up to start a cattle ranch in Montana in Rose Hill (1997)
Kristen Griffith, the older woman Mary Rose befriends and moves in with the Claybornes in Rose Hill (1997)
Carmen Moore as Shining Water, the Shoshone girl Adam falls in love with in Rose Hill (1997)
Stuart Wilson as Richard Elliott, the New Yorker visited by a woman looking for her family in Rose Hill (1997)
Vanya Rose as Maude, the house servant spooked by Mary Rose’s return to New York in Rose Hill (1997)
Jim Brooks as Isom, the black bronc buster who helps the Clayborne brothers get settled in the West in Rose Hill (1997)
Courtney Chase as young Mary Rose, inadvertently causing a fuss in Rose Hill (1997)
Jennifer Garner as Mary Rose, growing up and curious about men and marriage in Rose Hill (1997)
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