Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
awknovril
this movie helped when I needed something calm simple and nice to watch! I loved everything about it, the place the characters.. I wish it lasted longer! It's about appreciating the simple things! and opening to something new.. and appreciating people, helping them and winning their trust! I don't know why people said it's disappointing, but it's one of the best stories to me! ♥I recommend people to watch it too!
vchimpanzee
Dr. Evan Gibbs, who just lost his wife to cancer and has a young son Nate, is one of two candidates for head of pediatrics at his Chicago hospital. One of his superiors says in order to get the job, Evan needs to learn to care about people, and he knows of a community in the North Carolina mountains that needs a doctor to run its clinic just for the summer.Nate doesn't like the idea of moving, and once he and his father arrive in Dunn's Rock, Nate really doesn't like this place in the middle of nowhere, where the TV doesn't even work.Evan is not too happy either. The building that is supposedly a clinic is falling apart and inhabited by a raccoon which is not housebroken, and seems to have few if any of the needed supplies or equipment. He meets Terry thinking she is the incompetent nurse, but Terry turns out to be the mayor and won't listen to Evan's demands, thinking he is just uppity and picky. But seriously, this place is a dump and not fit to be a medical clinic.The perky Maggie returns from taking care of her mother, and she seems to know what she is doing and knows where things are. The place is actually better-equipped than we thought.Nate is having trouble adjusting too. Terry's daughter Christina and her friend Freddy who won't talk try to cheer him up. They eventually succeed and play some interesting games involving magic and supernatural fantasies.Darryl is not the handyman assigned to repair the clinic and doesn't take too kindly of being accused of that. He is out of work and his wife Sally has a baby on the way. The handyman is Stan, the town drunk and comic relief. Oh, good, this place will be in shape in no time.Evan must deal with people who can't pay for care and the various problems of being a small-town doctor. And the townspeople don't care for this outsider who seems to think he is better than they are and don't want to listen to his advice. Over time, things get better and Evan learns what makes a small community great. And Terry is pretty and close enough to Evan's age, if you know what I mean.It's a formula we've all seen many times before. Big-city professional gets banished to the boondocks and has to adjust to a new way of life. One could compare it to "Hart of Dixie", though the community in that TV series has a doctor already and is closer to civilization. This movie has one common thread with that series which I won't mention because it's a spoiler, but it does explain a lot.Still, it's not as bad as all that. Evan isn't a pleasant character and it seems unlikely he'll become the beloved doc, but he knows what he is doing and can handle, and has to handle, a number of crisis situations made worse by the fact no hospital seems to be nearby.Edie McClurg stands out from the rest of the cast and has just a delightful personality, and most of the other actors do a good job too. Young Channing Nichols is adorable, nice and intelligent. Mickey Jones is of course a genuine hick and a lot of fun and everything you'd expect in this place, but he turns out to be much more.Still, this is not really a hick town. Terry seems intelligent and so do some of the others. The people in general seem real and not backwoods bumpkins, especially the ones with no lines that are only seen in situations such as town meetings. Based on the credits, I would say these are real people from Transylvania County, and it shows.It is a family movie, but there are some upsetting situations and a medical crisis that involves blood. And this far from a hospital (we're not told, but there's not one in the immediate vicinity), some unpleasant truths have to be dealt with.It's an okay movie.
drpakmanrains
There have been many movies about city doctors moving to the rural mountain areas, finding it extremely difficult at first, and little by little, learning to love it and never go back. This story concerns a Chicago pediatrician, whose wife has just died from cancer, and who must go to rural North Carolina for a summer in order to get a promotion to head pediatrician. He has a 10 year old son who is very asthmatic. I wondered why the doctor's promotion was conditional, figuring it was just to give a reason to get him into the country for the story, but I was wrong, as this was just about the only twist that wasn't obvious from the start. The first third of the movie was the weakest part. All the characters were stereotypes, mostly bumpkins, except the female mayor, and you knew right away what would eventually happen there, especially since she was a widow. The middle followed the formula of the townsfolk gradually warming to the doctor and vice versa. I was about to rate this a 4 or 5, but the final third, while not wholly original, was very well done and emotional, and along with a couple of surprises, saved the film for me, and made it worth seeing. This is definitely not a film for the action crowd, as it has no violence, sex, or vulgar language, (although one woman comes on very strong to the doctor, overdoing her part badly). It is probably what most would call a traditional family film, though it has some scenes that might upset those who find medical scenes disturbing. Like one other reviewer stated, it felt a little like a Hallmark film or a TV movie, but if it finds the audience it is intended for, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Have a tissue handy for the last few minutes.By the way, I have been to Chicago and rural North Carolina many times, and if I were the doctor, I would have stayed in North Carolina too. I rarely encountered any "country bumpkins" no matter where I went there.
wrightz
The acting is for the most part terrible. The story is totally improbable -- that a doctor would be sent to a small town to get over the death of his wife is unlikely. That he would agree to go without making any plans for what his son will do is hardly believable. But most of all, the depiction of the mountain people in North Carolina is deplorable -- good hard-working friendly people are presented as suspicious, stupid and crude. Just because some of the people here are not highly educated does not make them hill-billy rubes. The people here respect and honor the natural beauty of these mountains. Ahtough this was filmed in my beautiful community, I can't believe the writer of this story ever set foot in the mountains.
