Big Sky River movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Big Sky River

This western romance is now available to watch on Philo or Spectrum TV on Roku. The Philo streaming service app includes the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel, along with 60 other channels.

RATING: TV-G

LENGTH: 1 hour 24 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

The story is about Tara who wants to go back to Parable, Montana, the place that made her the happiest when she was a young girl. She rents a house in order to move forward after a messy divorce, but the handsome sheriff who lives next door presents an unexpected twist to her plans. The movie is based on the book by Linda Lael Miller and was directed by Peter Benson.

THINGS I LIKED:

The only actors I recognized were Kavan Smith and Lochlyn Munro. Kavan plays the down-to-earth leading man.
Emmanuelle is lovely as the leading lady. I had never seen her in anything before even though her filmography is quite long. Unfortunately, the majority of the movies she’s been in have scored super low on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s nice to see an “older” couple in a romance.
Michelle Harrison plays a famous country singer. It seemed like she was the one really singing in the saloon scene, but I couldn’t verify it. She had a professional performer presence about her and had a great voice.
Hiram the raccoon. Tiny handcuffs. Ha ha
The kids in the cast all did a good job and were super sweet.
The manly/country names of the men and boys cracked me up: Boone, Hutch, Slade, Dawson, Fletcher, and Griffin.
We get to see some beautiful landscapes.
There’s a cute character named Kendra whose immediately likable. If I had had a daughter, I would have named her Kendra. (I have 4 sons.)
The movie is clean, simple, sweet, and refreshing.
It was really nice to see unselfish parents who put their kids before their own personal happiness.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Wow, only 2 kissing scenes? That’s pretty refreshing.
Very predictable.
There are some little missing details such as why Emmanuelle’s character wouldn’t have adopted her husband’s daughter if she had raised her since she was a baby.
Super cheesy dialogue
The classic story has a protagonist who goes on some kind of a journey. There’s a challenge, climax, and resolution. The missing part of that formula is the big hurdle that the leading couple has to overcome.