Sweet Land Movie Review - Rated PG

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Sweet Land Movie Review - Rated PG I have won an advance copy of this movie. My husband and I viewed it over the weekend. I thought you may enjoy it too so I posted my review for your reading pleasure. I love the fact that Sweet Land is rated PG. The entire family will enjoy this movie. It has a wonderful cast including Tim Guinnee, Elizabeth Reaser and Ned Beatty. It has won multiple film festival awards including the Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival It brings a bit of history and the struggles of the pioneers as well as the strong desire for love, to the screen in a way that is easy to relate to even by teenagers. It is sad at times while being funny at times. You will both laugh and cry but in the end you will respect the trials of the early settlers in America in a new light. The movie Sweet Land was a wonderful family movie. It is a love story but it is so much more than that. It begins in present day Minnesota with the death of Lars Torvik’s Grandmother in 2004. He struggles with the decision as to the best way to handle her estate. The land has been in the family for years. She has lived there since since 1920. In his struggle, he recalls the stories he has been told of the history behind the old farm and his ancestors. The movie then goes back in time to those early days of American history when mail order brides was quite common and World War 1 was still on the minds of the people in the community. The life between Olaf, a young Norwegian immigrant farmer and his German mail order bride Inge begins with the couple facing opposition from the beginning of their meeting in the train station. The trials they faced were many as they tried to be married in this new unforgiving land. First the preacher would not marry them because she was German. Then the excuse was her immigration papers were not in order. It was not custom for unmarried couples to live together so Inge had to stay with Olaf’s friends. Inge found life to be less private in the home of Frandsen and his large family. She thinks it would be better to live in the home of her husband to be than with friends. Olaf sleeps in the barn and Inge in the bedroom. This just causes more problems for them. The couple are no longer welcomed at church or anywhere else for that matter. Even when nobody will help them with the harvest of their crop, Olaf and Inge’s integrity remain in tack. At the risk of loosing everything he owns, Olaf stands up for his friend Frandsen when everyone else has deserted him and his family. Through all the trials Olaf and Inge’s love is strengthened to heights that only enduring trials will allow. The trials continue until the end of the movie where the town finally supports the couple and they are accepted as one of their own. Both my husband and I loved this movie. I give it a two thumbs up and encourage you to purchase it when it comes out on DVD on July 10, 2007.