| SAVING SARAH CAIN |
 2007 - USADirector: Michael Landon Jr.
- Reviewed by Jennifer
At the start of the movie, Sarah Cain (Lisa Pepper) is a self-centered career woman. We know this because she's an aggressive driver who honks a lot and tries to apply mascara while skidding around on slushy streets. This seems to be a common identifier of career women in family films, and it's probably safe to assume that she never goes to church. She's a syndicated newspaper columnist whose readership had been dropping off steadily, and things aren't so hot on the relationship front, either. Though she's got a seemingly decent boyfriend, there's a disconnect in her life. She's not really passionate about anything, even the sudden death of her Amish sister. When Sarah realizes she's next in line to raise her sister's children, it's just more of the same: she'll do it if she has to, but only in the most mechanical, half-hearted way. She returns to Portland with five Amish children in tow—Lyddie, Caleb, Josiah, Hannah, and Anna Mae (Bailee Madison who you might recognize from Bridge to Terabithia). They range in age from six to sixteen, but Sarah only intends to put them up until Lyddie turns eighteen and can take over guardianship. They stumble, shell-shocked, into her cold, citified apartment, only to discover that Sarah neglected to buy groceries. She doesn't show them around, and doesn't attempt to make them comfortable. It's not that she's mean or rude; she just doesn't seem to know any better. Pretty as she may be, Sarah is an absolutely cardboard character living in a flat, one-dimensional world. At this point the stage is set for Sarah and the children to learn all sorts of things about each other, and to really grow as people. Does this happen? Hah! Sarah enrolls the kids in regular school, allows them to live within the confines of their faith, and pretty much washes her hands of them. Taking guardianship of her nieces and nephews is tantamount to the acquisition of a few goldfish, with one exception—these Amish kids give her LOADS to write about. While the children struggle to fit in at school, adjust to city life, grieve the loss of their mother, and handle the separation from friends and loved ones (in a simple, Hallmark kind of way), Sarah's just typin' away on her laptop, using it all as fodder for her column, which is suddenly insanely popular. The kids know nothing about this, and when they discover the truth, they are understandably hurt. It's decided that it would be best for everyone if they returned to their community, but after a lot of silly business, Sarah finds out that her sister would have wanted her to act as the children's mother. Well, duh! It's obvious from the beginning that Sarah is going to step up and do the right thing, so you spend the entire movie waiting for this to happen. I'll admit that I got a little teary when the children finally asked her to stay, but I went right back to rolling my eyes when Sarah is shown typing on her laptop and wearing Ugg boots in her new Amish community. It would have been a thousand times more interesting if this had happened in the beginning of the movie and she went on to learn how to make butter or something... anything to show that the melding of worlds has some impact on these characters. I have a hard time believing this arrangement is ever going to work when our heroine seems to believe that being a family amounts to a decision no greater than, "my house or yours?" Apart from the fact that the storyline is unrealistic, the movie is rife with bad acting, stereotypes, and plain old cheese. The reality of this situation would be interesting to explore—we just need a filmmaker with a little more substance to take it on. |
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I feel sorry for Saving Sarah Cain. In fact, I feel kind of sorry for Michael Landon Jr. who lacks his father's ability to take sentimental tripe and make us laugh, cry, and watch it in reruns for decades on end. With this directorial effort, he just takes sentimental tripe and makes it, well, sentimental tripe. It's sad, really, because there's a lot that could have been done with the story.
