**This review is contributed by Super Channel—a channel dedicated to providing integrity and accountability in today’s entertainment.
This is a beautiful heartwarming movie with appropriate music throughout, majestic horses, stunning mountains, and boundless sky starring the delightfully charming Hedy Nasser and charismatic Jonathan Stoddard. A Dove approved movie for all ages, you will want to rally your entire family for a movie night together. So many good messages throughout, and the on-screen chemistry amongst the cast members is so natural and real, it’s easy to imagine the characters as people you know in your own community. Anyone’s friends, Annabel (Kris Ann Russell) and Dot (Kay-Megan Washington) will steal your heart.
The film opens with Paisley Sheridan (Hedy Nasser) narrating her family life as a child as the excellent cinematography highlights the vastness of the Montana landscape. Orphaned at an early age by a tragic accident that killed both her parents, Paisley was sent to live with her cousin’s family in Idaho and spent her summers on Grandfather’s Montana ranch which he left to her when he died. Montana was not where Paisley ever thought she would end up living.
Paisley’s kind heart, driven by personal experience, wants to refurbish the ranch into a retreat center and camp for emotionally wounded children to heal and trust again using equine therapy while experiencing rural outdoor living.
The mail brings bad news… Paisley’s request for a grant to rebuild the ranch and her dream to help kids, has just been shattered. The funding is not available, “please resubmit at the beginning of next calendar year”…
In the meantime, Josh Lake (Jonathan Stoddard) a big time Denver marketing exec just got some bad news, too. His high profile campaign has been showcased by a competitor company, and he is asked to lay low while they find out who leaked this very confidential information. A good opportunity to get away with his girlfriend. Well, maybe not…she will not be introducing him to her family as “unemployed” any time soon! The relationship is over.
On his way to Sun Valley to visit family, Josh’s car breaks down, and a stop at the Big Sky café brings him face to face with Paisley. Despite her best try at avoiding her ex-boyfriend, he hears her name… not too many Paisleys around. Josh is impressed to discover she is running Bright Star Ranch and he needs a place to stay tonight until the new alternator arrives for his car.
When Paisley reveals she is working on a new look for the ranch, Josh designs a breath-taking logo in seconds that Paisley loves! She knows she needs help to fulfill her dream and as she and Josh reconnect, reluctantly agrees to let him create a marketing plan to advertise Bright Star Ranch highlighting everything it is meant to be. When the bank turns her down for a loan, she is devastated until Josh suggests a fund-raising event, the Bright Star Ball.
When Josh gets the call his Denver firm wants him back, he promptly leaves and Paisley is heartbroken. A quick stop at a gas station leads to finding that tiny note in his wallet, reminding Josh of a promise made to himself. He can keep on driving or listen to his heart…a dramatic life-changing decision that will forever seal his fate and that of Paisley’s dream.
The Dove Take
“When God closes a door, start looking for a window”… a message that saved Paisley and a good one to remember when life goes sideways. God does not abandon… He encourages options.
