Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End (1999)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Jack Palance,(John Witting), was usually a bad guy in most of his films and in this film, he showed his great acting talents above and beyond my expectations. John Witting unexpectedly returns to his son's farm after years and years of separation. Christopher Walken,(Jacob), has a hard time trying to accept his father's appearance after he spent the night in the family barn. Jacob's son and younger daughter greet their new grandpa and accept him just as he is, a very old man, at the end of his ropes. Glenn Close,(Sarah Witting), delves into the character of John Witting and starts to bring out the truth about what happened to him during his years of absence from the family. This is a very warm and loving down to earth film about real events that happen in most families for generations to come and go.

I think anytime you cast Jack Palance as Christopher Walken's father, throw in Glenn Close as the wife and Haley 'I see Dead People' Osment's kid sister into the mix-you have a pretty inspired set of castings.I enjoyed also how the two kids in the first couple shows were brought back here-so nice to see the girl as a nurse and the boy as a young farmer. It's believable and well done, it's also the only things that either actor had done for some time, the transition to adulthood from kid actor is notoriously hard.Some of the snowstorm contrivances were sheer Hollywood-but don't be fooled, there's a lotta heart and fine acting to go around here. The show never loses sight of it's ideals or center.***

This film was the perfect ending to the Sarah Plain and Tall trilogy. Once again, there was more conflict, but this time, Sarah takes a back seat, and the movie is more or less about Jacob. It has a very good message about forgiveness, which is something I think is very important.The family has grown a little to include a child between Sarah and Jacob, and Anna and Caleb are considerably more grown up than in the previous movies. Once more, the casting was terrific, and the characters were just as endearing as always, although I must say that I found it rather odd that everytime something significant would happen, Sarah would be right in the middle of it--or close by. She was nosier than usual in this movie, but it suited her--as did her sometimes dry sense of humor, directed at various comments made by members of her family. If you watched the first two movies, you should definately see this one, but remember to watch them in order because otherwise some things won't make much sense.

I had borrowed the three Sarah movies from a friend, and had watched them while sick in bed during one weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. I enjoyed how the last movie gave a glimpse of what Caleb and his sister were like when they grew up. In addition, I liked the carry-through of the "Billy-boy" song that first was heard during the credits of the first movie, the title "Sarah, Plain and Tall." However, the one thing in Winter's End that I didn't like was the youngest daughter. She was a very cute little girl, but she just had too much spirit and looked like a brat compared to the other kids, even compared to talkative but still good-natured Caleb when he was younger.